Autem Novam Mortem
by anesthesiadoll
Summary: Time is complicated. You seem to realise it at the point when you know all of your friends are going to die. Time travel, SS/OC, rating M, slightly AU, triggering at parts
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Hello! This is my first story in here and I don't have a beta since I mostly write the chapters the weekend before the publishing. This is going to be a long story, at least 100k and I try to publish new chapters every Monday. The actual chapters are going to be much longer. So, with these words I'll let you go to the prologue of the story.

_anesthesiadoll_

**_Disclaimer: JKR created the world of Harry Potter. If you recognise it, it isn't created by me._**

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A man lurked from shadow to another through the darkened alley. He had hooded his head and no one could see his face without removing the hood, and he was being careful and suspicious of anything and everything. Even though it was close to six in the morning, he still wasn't quite sure if people would see him from their windows; Knockturn Alley was never that safe, not in daylight nor in moonlight. He could only hope no one would stop his journey.

A familiar, old sign greeted him as it swayed in the gentle breeze. The silvery letters forming a couple of words – _Clockwork, Apparatuses and Jewellery_ – were almost painfully familiar to him as he stared at them for a moment, then proceeding to get to the door. For his surprise, there was a light on behind the counter but he couldn't see anyone inside. He quickly moved through the door and stepped into the small room where clocks were ticking and other small devises lay under the glass counters. There were beautiful music boxes and clocks made out of silver and precious stones, and he knew the silversmith would soon come down there.

After a moment of peaceful ticking his wait was rewarded as a young woman walked from a door behind the counters. The man removed the hood from his head and looked at the woman as she gently brushed some dirt out of the counter. There was no readable expression upon her face and the man knew she would keep it that way for the night.

"What can I do to you, Severus?" The woman brushed her raven black hair behind her ears and looked at Severus Snape with her piercing blue eyes filled with sadness and deep affection. He knew her habits almost too well and guessed that she had been waiting for him to come on another sleepless night. After all this time, she always seemed to know when he was in trouble.

"I need your help."


	2. Chapter 1: The New Girl

A/N: The next chapter is on its way and I think I shall publish it in the beginning of next week, either Monday or Tuesday.

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**Chapter 1: The New Girl**

The Slytherin common room was silenced in moments as Professor Slughorn stepped in. Everyone fixed their eyes to their Head of House as he calmly stood there and Severus wondered to himself who was in trouble this time. He quickly glanced over to Avery and Mulciber, who looked just as stunned as he did as their Head walked into the common room.

"I wish to speak with the seventh years. Go on, everyone else," the man smiled to himself and Severus was quite sure this wouldn't end well. Wilkes, Rosier, Avery and Mulciber looked quite ready to throw a tantrum and Severus silently noted to himself that whatever the matter was, he should get to know what his so-called friends had made.

"There is a new seventh year this year. Her name is Juliet Adder. I wish you welcome Miss Adder to the Slytherin house warmly and make her feel comfortable around here," Professor Slughorn looked carefully around the common room and everyone just seemed to shrug it off.

"She will arrive tomorrow morning during breakfast and I sincerely hope you will understand how to welcome her here." Professor Slughorn glanced around the common room once more and Severus could feel curiosity lifting its head inside him. A new student on the seventh year? There had never been any transfer student from other schools and he doubted that the girl had been taught at home.

An excited buzz rose in the room as everyone started to wonder about the new girl, but Severus sat silently in his own chair. He felt like there was something Professor Slughorn wasn't telling them and he had trusted his instincts long enough to listen to them.

"Adder? It doesn't sound like a pureblood name to me," someone snarled and Severus lazily glanced around the room.

"I've never heard about her and I know every single wizard and witch in Britain. She must be from somewhere else," someone replied to the earlier comment and Severus inwardly growled to the stupid comments everyone was making.

"Really? Is no-one else wondering about the fact that she just suddenly decided to come to Hogwarts, a week after the semester started?" he snarled at them and everyone in the common room shut up, turning their heads for the man not many would address even in his own house.

"Isn't it a bit suspicious that whoever she is, she didn't come here herself tonight and that we only are informed of this matter a night earlier?" Severus could feel their minds creating new ideas and he just rolled his eyes, rising from his chair and walking calmly to the boys' dormitories.

"Snape! Why do you suddenly care?" someone asked behind him and he didn't even turn around, just walked down the corridor to the room, shutting the door behind him.

Indeed, why did he care? Severus wasn't sure about this matter even for himself as he undressed and made his way under the covers, but he still wondered about the new girl when he fell asleep.

* * *

Severus was the first one to wake up the next morning and as he was walking to Great Hall with his bag, he silently wondered to himself if the new girl was already in there. Some Gryffindors had already woken up, but he paid nearly no attention to them as he walked to his own table. The Great Hall was almost empty, only a few students had already come inside and he knew that when Miss Adder would come in, he would see her immediately.

He poured some coffee to himself, grabbed a book out of his bag, and started to read it, just to spend some time, but still he paid a lot of attention to the Great Hall, waiting for the new girl to arrive. He was surprised seeing someone sitting right in front of him as he lifted his eyes from the book the next time.

Severus first noticed the pale blue eyes staring at him and then the black hair that was on a bun on top of her head. She reminded him of someone he knew, but he wasn't sure about that remark. The girl just quickly glanced at him and then returned to pour herself some tea and to put a couple slides of toast to her plate.

"You are Juliet Adder, aren't you?" Severus asked the new girl and she nodded her head, sipping her tea and avoiding his eyes. He noticed that she wasn't that comfortable and wondered if it was because of him or if it was because of her first day.

"Yes, indeed. You may call me Juliet." Her voice was surprisingly bright and soft and she was dressed in the school robes, but he could detect a silver chain around her neck, which disappeared below her robes.

"Severus Snape." He gave his hand to her and after a moment of hesitation, she shook hands with him, biting her lip at the same time. Juliet looked at him for a moment, as if trying to memorise something and then nodded her head, taking the cup back into her hands and sipping it silently.

"So, why did you come to Hogwarts?" Severus casually asked the girl and she lifted her eyes to his, looking suddenly very calm and ethereal as she sipped a little more of the tea and smiled to him.

"I'm sure you'd like to know," she remarked with an amused tone and then looked at the doors of the Great Hall, noticing the Slytherins walking towards them. The faint smile was removed from her lips as the Slytherins sat abnormally close to Severus and the new girl, and she turned her head away, studying the wall of the Great Hall.

"Hello, puppet," Avery sneered at the girl with a tone that promised nothing good for her, and she turned her head sharply at him, piercing him with his icy blue eyes. It took only a couple of seconds to make him quiver under her gaze and he quickly turned his face away. Severus was amused by this and wondered if they would realise quickly enough that she wasn't one to play with.

"The Headmaster left me with an impression that the Slytherin house was for intelligent and cunning people. If everyone else in this house is just like you, I should have gone straight to Gryffindor," Juliet noted with a bored tone and Severus admired how easily she could mock people. It seemed very natural to her and he wondered if she would ever get into trouble for it. She probably would, seeing how Avery was bright red. No one usually dared to mock him aloud.

Juliet smirked to herself and turned back to Severus. "I came here only to take my NEWTs and after the exams, I'll probably move to another country," she told him calmly and Severus nodded his head.

"You have been homeschooled, then?"

Juliet suddenly smiled to herself as if it was a private joke and nodded her head, that sly smile never fading. She sipped her tea and turned her eyes to the door as more students started to roll into the hall. Some Gryffindors noted the new student and they stopped at the door. After a moment, one of them walked closer to the Slytherin table and stopped right in front of her, and she just blankly stared at the young girl. "Are you Juliet Adder?" the girl asked her carefully and Juliet nodded her head.

"A package was brought to the Gryffindor tower last night. It had your name on it," she explained carefully to her, as if afraid that she would hex her. Severus followed carefully their exchange and Juliet didn't even look surprised. She just snorted to herself.

"Where is it now?" Juliet asked calmly and the girl pulled something out of pocket and laid it down on the table. Juliet absentmindedly eyed the golden wrappers and then turned her much warmer glance back at the girl.

"Thank you."

The girl left and Juliet took the package into her hands. She looked at it silently, then quickly opening the wrapper and looking at the small, silvery box inside.

"What's that?" Severus heard one of the girls asking her and Juliet didn't move her eyes. She put the box silently into the pocket of her robes and looked around her. She met Severus's eyes for a moment.

"Nothing you should be concerned about," she answered them and looked down at her food, starting to eat and clearly looking like something was weighing her mind.

"No need to be rude," someone muttered and she raised her eyebrow, looking directly into them.

"No need to ask too many questions," she snapped back and and the other one lowered their eyes.

Severus quickly noticed that she didn't like when others asked about her personal matters and wondered to himself why it was so. It was almost as if she actually didn't appreciate being in the noble house of Slytherin, as if she didn't care about making friends for the year.

"How come you had a package sent to the Gryffindor tower?" Mulciber asked with an annoyed tone from her and Juliet ate silently, not bothering to answer his question. As he tried to grab her arm, he suddenly found himself on the floor and having a wand pointed at his chest.

Juliet smiled calmly to Mulciber and appeared to be totally in control. He didn't even have his wand out of his pocket and she looked quite ready to hex him as soon as possible.

"Let me make you a few things clear. First, I don't care about talking to people who can barely spell out their own name. I don't care how pure your blood might be. I won't answer stupid questions. I will not tolerate you trying to hex me and I will hex you back without even thinking, and trust me, it can get quite ugly," her tone was suddenly ice-cold and Severus noted how Mulciber shivered under her wand. The other boy looked like he had no idea how she had just thrown him on the floor and the Headmaster was walking towards them. She didn't even look like she realised it.

"Miss Adder, is there a problem?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkling light in his eyes. Juliet lifted her eyes up to him and moved away from Mulciber as if the boy disgusted her.

"No Headmaster, I was just showing my fellow housemates the rules," she smiled brightly at the Headmaster and Dumbledore shook his head. Severus wondered if the girl was mentally ill since she seemed to change her mood like some other girls changed clothes.

"Is this really the kind of behaviour Henry would like to see?" the Headmaster asked the girl and she just stared at him silently for a minute, then smiled to herself as if it was some sort of a private joke.

"I don't really believe Henry would mind me hexing a couple of Slytherins, sir, with all respect. After all, he is such a Gryffindor himself and would have probably had all my housemates in St. Mungo's," Juliet stated smiling bright and the Headmaster answered her smile as if it was such a natural thing to him.

"I believe you are correct in your assumption," he stated and walked back to the head table. Severus couldn't believe his eyes: had the Headmaster really just let her out of trouble even though she was a Slytherin and causing trouble on her very first day?

Juliet grabbed her bag from the floor and started to walk out of the Great Hall with everyone's eyes fixed at her. Severus quickly joined her and she seemed like she didn't mind it at all, letting him walk with her through the halls. Severus wondered how she could do so with so little effort trying to remember where they were turning and he doubted the girl had remembered her schedule since they were heading towards the dungeons for the Potions lesson.

"So, who is Henry?" Severus suddenly asked when there was no-one else to hear them and the girl looked at him with her piercing blue eyes, brushing few stray hairs behind her ear. They walked through the corridors that seemed oddly familiar to her since she didn't even need to look at them while she walked.

"He is just a friend of mine. You haven't met him, if you're wondering about it. Henry moved to England barely a week ago."

Juliet looked at the corridor walls and seemed to be interested in the moving paintings as Severus furiously wondered about the weird girl. She sounded like she was English, but she didn't have any special accent. She was clearly very quick with her moves and clearly knew many things, and Severus decided it would be very smart to keep an eye on her.

"May I assume that this Henry is the reason why you actually moved to England?" Severus found himself asking the girl and she abruptly stopped, looking curiously at the man in front of her. Her eyes were full of curiosity and she nodded her head once, frowning a little.

"You may. Henry and I have been living together for a while now."

Severus's mind was suddenly full of ideas whom this mysterious Henry was. Was he her boyfriend? A fiancé? How could one person make another one to move into a completely different country and make them attend a school? Juliet averted his eyes and slowly walked again, this time more silently. Her steps didn't echo from the walls in the same way as Severus's did; he could barely even hear her anymore. If he couldn't have seen her, he would have thought he was completely alone.

The more questions he asked her the more mysterious the girl became. She had told the house her own rules and he couldn't understand why. She had said Henry and she lived together, but hadn't mentioned anything other about him than he was a Gryffindor. She got a mysterious package on her very first day, delivered into the worst rival's house and wouldn't tell what was in the small, silvery box.

"I understand that I might seem a bit peculiar," Juliet said suddenly and Severus quickly turned his eyes at her, waiting for her to continue. She pulled her sleeves to her elbows without even looking at anything particular and kept on walking, and for a moment Severus thought he had been imagining her voice.

"I just want to make sure that becoming friends with you isn't going to be the biggest mistake of my whole life."

Her words were like a punch in the guts. Severus stared at her his mouth open. He couldn't even tell what she must have been thinking about, because there was an unreadable expression on her face. Those small words seemed to tell him about her more than anything else she had said.

"What are you afraid of?" he asked her in a shocked tone and Juliet turned her eyes to his. The pale blue eyes didn't seem to tell him anything and still he could find sudden sadness in them.

"My mother and father made one mistake in their lives and it cost them their lives. I don't want that same thing happen to me," she told him silently and Severus looked blatantly shocked at the careful expression on her face. It was clear to him that Juliet was guarding her every single emotion beneath the surface and not letting anyone else see them.

"I was only two when they died. I don't remember much from them and I can never get to know them better now," she sighed, "and it bothers me. Losing your parents is one thing; never knowing them is even worse."

Juliet's tone didn't even flinch as she said the words that told Severus more about her than he could have ever guessed. They were close to the Potions room as she turned her eyes back to him, frowning a little.

"Could you show me where the common room is? I haven't had time yet to talk with Professor Slughorn and I don't really know anything about this castle other than the places I was shown," she spoke softly to him, looking at him curiously and Severus nodded his head, walking through a small corridor and leading the way for her into the Slytherin common room. She followed silently as they stopped in front of the blank wall.

"The password changes once in a month. For now it is 'parselmouth'," Severus told the girl and she nodded her head. "The girls' rooms are on the right and the boys' on the left. I think you'll be staying at the last room since no-one seemed to volunteer to sleep at the same room with you," Severus smirked and the girl smiled to herself.

"I think I'm okay with it. Shall we return to the Potions corridor now?" Juliet suggested and Severus nodded his head, leading the girl back in front of the room where most of the class was already waiting.

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A/N2: I hope you like this story. I do appreciate you commenting and writing reviews, but that isn't too necessary for my inspiration.

_anesthesiadoll_


	3. Chapter 2: On A Friday

A/N: Hello again! I believe I shall be publishing the next chapter in a week, on February 25th. If not, do not worry: I'll be on a week-long winter break and I think I can produce a lot of text during that time. So, enjoy the chapter!

_anesthesiadoll_

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**Chapter 2: On A Friday**

Slughorn had introduced Juliet to everyone in front of the class even though she had tried to reason him out of it as soon as she found out about his plan. Severus had quite quickly noticed that she actually didn't want the attention their Head was giving her, and he could quite understand why. The Marauders – or Potter, Black and Lupin, since Pettigrew hadn't made it into the class – looked very curious about her and Lily seemed like she was going to question Juliet about everything as soon as she had the chance. Juliet quickly dove back to her seat next to Severus, clearly hoping she could sink through the ground.

Severus had been pointed as her Potions partner since he was the only one in the group doing potions alone. Juliet had sat next to him in the beginning of the class looking quite relieved of this turn of events, and Severus smirked as he knew that the Marauders would have to notice very soon that the girl had a bad temper, quite quick reflexes and probably was a very good duellist and a spell-caster. It looked like Black was already planning on something and she was cutting their ingredients in the correct way, very carefully doing so. Severus noticed Black sneaking something to her bag and Juliet quickly glanced at the boy, bending over to look at the bag, and then Potter decided to throw something into their potion.

Severus barely managed to cast a shield in front of him in time as the potion exploded almost immediately. It didn't hit him, but Juliet hadn't been lucky and quick enough. He had seen how her eyes had been wide with shock and as the potion exploded, it landed straight into her open eyes, and she closed them too late.

"_Helvete__!_" He voice was loud and still soft, and Severus watched in horror as the potion started to burn her skin. Professor Slughorn turned to them right in time to see the horrified looks on Potter's and Black's faces as she pulled a wand out of her pocket and pointed it at her face, and water poured out of it as she dropped down on her knees. Severus could hear her swear and he knew that is must have hurt a lot.

"Juliet, open your eyes and face me. I need to clean your eyes," he told her with a stern voice and she very quickly forced her eyes to stay open and faced him. Severus could already see how her eyes were bloodshot and red.

"_Aguamenti_," Severus muttered under his breath as he pointed his wand into her eyes and the water hit them, and she shrieked in pain. It was clear that the cold water was making the pain in her eyes much worse, but she wasn't cursing anymore. She was breathing unsteadily as she stared at him with eyes that saw absolutely nothing.

"What happened?" Professor Slughorn was jumping around them as Severus tried to get the potion out of Juliet's eyes. He sneered at the sight of the worried Professor but had absolutely no time to think about it. Lily Evans was down on her knees right next to them, helping to stop the potion from ruining all of Juliet's face.

"Potter and Black threw something into our cauldron and it exploded on her face. Some of the potion hit her eyes," Severus told the Professor with a very cold tone and saw how Juliet started blinking rabidly, trying to get all of the potion out of her eyes. Slughorn started to yell at the two Marauders as Remus Lupin ran to them, taking Juliet's arms and pulling her up on her chair where the girl stood sat, rocking a bit from side to side as they worked each on their particular area. Severus only then realised the potion had burned her arms, too, and that they needed to get her to the infirmary as soon as possible.

"We have to take her to Madame Pomfrey," Lily said aloud with a worried voice and looked Severus straight into the eyes for the first time over a year. She had as quickly understood that it was a very serious situation. "She might lose her sight if we waste any more time," her voice was full of concern and Severus nodded his head coldly, grabbing Juliet's arm by the area it hadn't burned and pulled her quickly out of the classroom as Lupin and Lily followed them two.

"I can't believe how stupid those two are!" Lupin sounded absolutely devastated and angry, and Severus held tightly to Juliet's arm, guiding her through the empty corridors as quickly as he could. The girl was clearly in a huge amount of pain, but she still ran behind him, trusting him to guide her into the right corridors and Lupin continued his angry rant.

"Those two morons could have killed you two! They should be in detention until they graduate!"

"_Håll käften_!" Juliet screamed roughly at the boy and Severus turned around the corner. They were getting closer to the infirmary and he sped up in the empty hallways. He had no time to wonder about the peculiar language the girl he was guiding was using. All he could think was to get her to the infirmary before she would lose all of her sight.

Madame Pomfrey saw them running into the infirmary and was around Juliet in no time, putting spells on her face as Severus tried to breathe. Juliet didn't seem like it had been hard for her to run through the corridor even though Severus himself, Lily and Lupin were panting heavily. Madame Pomfrey was putting some salve on her skin as she kept her eyes open and tried to look around her, and those bloody eyes horrified Severus more than they should have.

"What happened?" the matron asked them while she worked on Juliet, guiding her to sit down on one of the beds and Severus was the only one capable of forming words.

"A potions accident. She got boiling Draught of the Living Dead into her eyes and also something else that Potter threw into our cauldron," Severus quickly explained and the matron's eyes darkened noticeably as Juliet sat there, whispering something silently. Severus listened to the words for a moment, but couldn't understand what she was whispering.

The matron stepped back as a bright light wrapped around her and she opened her bloodshot eyes, and Severus could see how the burns were healing on her face and the matron stared it as if she had never seen anyone heal quite so quickly. Juliet still was muttering those words and Severus understood it was some sort of a spell to heal herself.

She stopped muttering the invocation some time after and the light faded away, and she let out a deep sigh as everyone else in the infirmary stared at the girl. The matron had an interested look on her face. "That was a very advanced healing spell, dear," she noted and Juliet closed her eyes, covering them with her fingers and slightly rubbing her temples at the same time.

"I'm good at fixing things," she told the matron tiredly and kept her eyes covered. Severus understood that the light hurt her eyes and he quickly conjured a black cloth, walking next to her and pulling it over her face so that she wouldn't need to keep her fingers in front of her eyes. Juliet tied it behind her head and sat there for a moment. Severus didn't know if he should move or not.

Everything in Juliet told him that she was really tired after the spell. "How could you do such magic in such a state?" Lily asked the girl curiously and she sat at her place for a moment, breathing a couple of times in and out.

"She didn't do it alone," they heard a voice behind them and a man walked towards them. Juliet didn't seem surprised that she had heard that voice, more like relieved it was there. The man put down a hand on her shoulder and whispered something to her in that weird language she had been speaking earlier and Juliet just nodded once.

Severus noticed that the man was approximately 15 years older than she was and that they looked very much alike. Both of them had piercing blue eyes and midnight black hair, but where Juliet looked innocent and girly, the man looked like he was constantly under stress and danger.

"Madame, I apologise for storming into here," the man offered his hand to the matron and as she gave her own for him to shake, he kissed it silently and looked her into the eyes, nodding his head slightly at the same movement.

"It is quite alright, Mr Adder."

_Is this Henry?_ Severus had thought the man to be the same age as Juliet and to be his fiancé or some sort of a close friend, but the man didn't look like he had friends and he certainly didn't have any rings in his fingers. As Severus quickly glanced at him, he very quickly noticed that he had more scars than Severus himself had, and he had been in more fights and potions accidents than the rest of the school combined. The man looked like he was fast and a good fighter, and Severus silently wondered what was the relationship between those two.

"I believe you are the one who taught the spell to Miss Adder?" the matron looked interested in the man in front of him and he nodded his head, still staying very close to Juliet. Severus had backed up from them and now stood close to Lupin and Lily, and where he watched the situation unfold, the Gryffindors were staring at the man in awe. Severus couldn't quite understand it, but he was too busy thinking about the situation to wonder about such things.

"Actually, Juliet made it herself some few years ago. Of course, we still have to perfect it, but it works already quite well," the man looked surprisingly proud of the blindfolded girl right next to him and Severus could see how he was rubbing her back, clearly trying to calm her down in his very own way.

"It looks like your sister is as talented as you are, Mr Adder," the matron noted with a satisfied smile on her lips and the man nodded once. The matron then turned to the teenagers in the room sternly and Severus was the only one who didn't squirm under her glance.

"Off you go, then. I trust you to inform Professor Slughorn that Miss Adder is well and that she will stay at the infirmary until dinner," Madame Pomfrey said and shooed them away from there. Lily and Lupin looked quite shocked off how they hadn't been allowed to stay there, but Severus turned his eyes cautiously at the two Gryffindors.

"Who is this Mr Adder?" he asked them sharply and Lily turned her eyes to him, looking quite curious about the fact that he actually didn't know about it.

"Haven't you ever heard of Henry Adder?" Lily asked surprised and Severus shook his head. Lupin took interest in their conversation and cut in before Lily could tell.

"Henry Adder was the Defence teacher in here fifteen years ago, but he quitted after his third year without ever telling the reason to anyone else. He is very talented in creating new spells and they say he only took the place since Dumbledore couldn't find anyone else to fill it. He is the only one since the forties that has maintained the position for more than a year," Lupin quickly explained to Severus and he nodded his head silently, wondering about it for a moment.

"They have at least fifteen years difference," he noted mostly to himself. Lily and Lupin looked at each other. It was very uncommon even for wizards to have such age differences between siblings and they had noted it.

"The wizarding world hasn't heard of him in over ten years. They said he moved to Germany very soon after quitting and five years later he just disappeared," Lily said silently. Severus already knew why it had happened: Juliet had mentioned that her parents had died when she was two. She had told him that Henry and she had been living together for quite some time already. She had let Severus understand that she had been homeschooled.

Henry Adder had left Hogwarts because his parents had died and he had taken care of his baby sister Juliet.

* * *

When they had returned to the class, Professor Slughorn had been immensely relieved to learn that Juliet was fine and that Madame Pomfrey was taking care of her. The three students had decided it was for the best to keep it a secret that Juliet had healed herself and that Henry Adder was in the school, because Severus had guessed that Slughorn already knew of Juliet's heritage and that he would have wanted to exchange a couple of words with Henry if he had a chance to do so.

After the Potions lesson ended, Severus took Juliet's bag and decided to take it to her room since he already knew that the girl would be released from the infirmary after dinner. The Slytherin common room had more people in there, mostly gossiping around and Severus learned that Potter and Black had lost two hundred and fifty points from their house, had detention every week with Professor Slughorn until Christmas and had to apologise to Juliet and Severus formally. Severus was pleased to hear all this, and as he asked one of the seventh year girls to drop Juliet's bag into the right room, he lazily looked around the common room and out of the window at the bottom of the lake.

The girl told him that the bag was waiting for Juliet in her room and Severus just nodded his head, leaving the common room again and walking through the school for the Charms class.

It seemed like most of the school had already heard of what had happened and there were people talking about the new, mysterious Slytherin in every corner. Severus felt he was lucky to be let out of most of the gossip, but some people seemed to know that he had been Juliet's partner and that made the rumours spread even faster. Some had suggested that he had exploded their cauldron to make sure the new Slytherin girl knew he didn't like anyone touching his potions, and some even suggested that the girl had tried to explode the potion over him.

In reality, he wasn't bothered by Juliet. Juliet had actually been very careful while cutting their ingredients and seemed to trust him when he had told her a couple of tips how to brew the potions in a better way, listening to his words carefully. Juliet seemed like she had a thirst for intelligence, and Severus no longer wondered why it was so: it was clear that Henry had taught the girl a lot more than most people learned through their time in Hogwarts, but he couldn't quite understand why she had come to the school. She had said it was because of her NEWTs, but Severus guessed the girl could get all subjects an Outstanding even if she took the exam now.

Why was she acting so mysteriously? It had started to bother Severus that the girl seemed to be there simply because she wanted to be, and seemed like that every teacher in the school knew that she actually didn't need their tutoring. In Severus's mind, Juliet could have probably taught the Potions class better than Slughorn. Someone that talented shouldn't be bothered by simple schoolwork, and she still seemed very interested in everything Hogwarts had to offer for her.

Severus had peaked in her bag and noticed that she was attending to Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, Astronomy, Ancient Runes, Herbology and History of Magic. She also had a black diary in her bag, but Severus knew it was not his business to look at it. What made him uneasy was the fact that on the notebook was the Durmstrang crest, and it looked like it was taken care of better than most of the things in her bag. During the rest of the day, Severus couldn't stop wondering about why she had something in a notebook from a different school, and he decided that he would just wait until she let it to be seen and then ask her about it.

During dinner, Juliet walked into the Great Hall with sunglasses on her eyes, clearly uncomfortable at the bright lighting. The Slytherins quickly made her room to sit next to Severus, and she didn't remove the sunglasses from her eyes.

"I take it your eyes still haven't completely healed," Severus said and Juliet just nodded her head, pulling her hair out of the bun it had been all day and letting it fall down her back. Severus noticed how her fingers untangled it in a matter that was at the same time both determined and gentle.

"It's going to take a couple of days until I can see as clearly as before and probably a couple of dozes of Headache Relief," she told him and Severus nodded his head. The girl reminded him of a vampire and he couldn't do anything than to smirk at the thought. Juliet raised an eyebrow at him, but he just shook his head.

"So, what did you find interesting in my bag?" the girl asked casually and Severus was quite shocked that she had guessed. Juliet smirked at his astounded look and laughed gently. "Even though I have been here for less than a day, I already know how the Slytherin mind works. You wanted to know more about me, so you peeked at my bag and tried to figure more out of me and clearly you found something in there that worries you."

Severus was very curious of how she had managed not to get angry about it.

"The diary," he stated and she nodded her head.

"I went to Durmstrang for a couple of years," she answered calmly and Severus rose and eyebrow at her.

"Really?"

"They do accept girls in there," she rolled her eyes and drank a bit from her goblet. "Surprisingly," she continued, "people just think about it as a place for guys, but there are actually quite a few girls. One of the best duellist in there was Ynja, and she bet all the guys that dared to challenge her."

"Who was the best duellist, then?" someone asked from their left and Severus idly noted it was the same girl that had taken Juliet's bag into her room.

"I think they gave me the honour," she noted and everyone in the Slytherin table looked at her doubtfully except for Severus. He just snorted at their expressions.

"No wonder while coming from such a family," he said aloud and Juliet stared at him. There were curious looks all around the table. Juliet looked like the thought bothered her and she turned her eyes away.

"So, what do you think about Hogwarts compared to Durmstrang?" Severus quickly changed the subject before she could think about his words. She turned her head back to him and thought her answer for a moment before answering.

"It is very different, of course. There are good and bad sides for either schools. Durmstrang is a rough place and during the winters, it is bloody cold, but Hogwarts seems like there are too many fights between the houses. In Durmstrang we were expected to act well with everyone, but in here it looks like an open war," she told them silently and Severus could guess she was glaring at the Gryffindor table behind her sunglasses.

"There's also the fact that Durmstrang accepts students from all around the Europe and Hogwarts is meant for British wizards and witches. Back in there, I learned to speak six different languages, two of them fluently, and I now have two native languages. There everyone had to learn to cope with different people, we had to learn to understand their opinions and value them, and it was a very valuable lesson. Hogwarts could use a bit of that," Juliet continued her speech and rubbed her temples again.

"Black and Potter – the Gryffindor boys who created this mess – are in detention until Christmas and they lost quarter thousand points from their House. They also have to apologise to us of their stupid behaviour," Severus commented and the girl silently nodded her head, thinking it for a moment.

"They seem to hate you quite a bit," she observed and glanced at him, and Severus just nodded his head, deciding it was best to not talk about that subject. Most of the other Slytherins were no longer interested in their conversations and Severus could feel how they were talking about their own problems all around them.

"It's been going on since the first day," he told her and Juliet frowned a bit. He couldn't see her eyes, so he couldn't possibly know that there was a sad look in them even though she kept her face straight, and she just looked at him for a couple of moments, slowly turning her eyes away.

"So, what languages do you know?" Severus changed the subject knowing it was probably for the best not to tell Juliet about all of it during the first day. Juliet smiled at him with warmth and brushed her long hair off her face.

"My natives are English and Swedish. I speak French, German, Russian, Italian and Dutch. Of course, Swedish made communication between people from the Nordics a lot easier, and since half of the population seemed to come from those countries, Swedish became the most popular language."

"It seems very odd that you'd need to speak different languages between different people," Severus frowned and Juliet's smile grew wider.

"Yeah, sometimes it was a bit weird. After a while you just kind of stop noticing it, though."

"So, why didn't you stay there? It sounds like you liked that place quite a lot," Severus looked at the girl curiously and Juliet bit her lip for a moment, looking quite confused.

"The situation is quite unstable in there. Many old pureblood families go to Durmstrang and the situation with the Dark Lord kind of made things... interesting. Since I don't believe in slaughtering thousands of people simply for an idea, it was for the best to just leave before things would start to happen," she explained to him in a voice that showed no emotion. She wasn't hiding them; it just seemed like the situation in Durmstrang really didn't bother Juliet that much, and Severus was becoming more curious with every word she said and left unspoken.

"You are a pureblood and you don't believe muggles are beneath you?" Severus asked with a curious tone.

Juliet didn't answer him.


	4. Chapter 3: But I Remember Everything

A/N: Hello! Another week has passed and now I am here to provide you a new chapter for this story. The next chapter should come in a week, though I don't think it will take that long to write it. But, nevertheless, enjoy!

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

_June 11th, 1962_

Henry stared at the letter in front of him for a long time, just sitting there without being able to move. He could faintly hear how the Great Hall was buzzing on the background, but he felt like it was surreal, like it couldn't simply be true.

_Dear Mr Henry Adder,_

_I am writing to inform you of the passing of Miriam and Edgar Adder._

How could his life go straight into hell in one sentence? He felt like it was impossible to breathe, as if someone was playing a joke on his account, and he could only stare at the letter in front of him.

He quickly read the letter, not even understanding whom had sent it to him. In the letter, they had mentioned that Aurors had found the house with a Dark Mark hovering over it, and Juliet was being taken care of by them until they would arrive the same day at 9 o'clock. Henry quickly glanced at his watch, noticing he had half an hour before his sister would arrive and he just stared at the paper, trying to understand what it read.

"Is everything alright?" Minerva asked him, leaning closer to him. Henry moved his eyes to her, looking at the older woman feeling detached from his body. He showed the letter to the woman and she read it, turning silent and staring at the younger Gryffindor.

"I am so sorry," her voice was full of concern and Henry just nodded his head, turning his head back to the letter, sitting still for a minute and breathing deep the same time.

"They are coming here in half an hour," he stated silently and took the letter back into his hands, folding it and putting it into his pocket. Minerva looked at him the whole time.

"I'll tell Albus you won't be teaching today," she said gently and Henry nodded his, rose from his chair and walked through the Great Hall into the door, not even noticing that almost every student was watching at him. Teachers didn't walk through the Hall unless there was something wrong, and every Gryffindor knew from his face that something had happened.

Henry held his face down as he walked out of the castle, down the old path into the gates of Hogwarts. He sat down on a rock close to the apparation point, still feeling detached and like it was all just a dream. His thoughts were running circles and he just sat there, until a faint pop woke him up from his thoughts and he turned his eyes to two Aurors standing in front of him.

The little girl in the woman's arms was silent and Henry rose silently, took Juliet into his arms and held her close. He could feel the girl shivering silently against his chest, hiding it from the Aurors.

"Is there anything I should be aware of?" he silently asked the Aurors and they looked each other, feeling clearly out of place.

"We think she saw what happened," one of them spoke and Henry nodded his head. He felt like someone was strangling him as he just stared at them and tried to hold Juliet, tried to calm her down as well as he could.

"Thank you," he muttered silently and turned around, walking through the gates and carrying his little sister in his arms, the little sister that should have grown up with their mother singing her to sleep, should have known how much their parents loved her.

Instead, they were both orphans.

* * *

_June 22nd, 1962_

It was his last day as a Professor at Hogwarts. Albus had understood quite well why he couldn't simply stay there any longer, and he sat in the end of term feast, feeling numb. He couldn't stop thinking about his little sister that was in the room behind his back, with a house-elf called Toffee. Juliet hadn't let anyone else than him and the elf to touch her, and for Henry it seemed like she was trying to protect herself from the horrors they had made her seen.

Juliet still wasn't any better. She refused to speak and she screamed every night in her dreams, and Henry couldn't help but to hold her in his arms, sing to her and to wish there was a way to end her nightmares. He had built her a music box very quickly, and he could hear the faint song through the door just behind his back. Henry knew that the elf would play it for her if she was starting to get upset, and he wondered how long it would take until the elf would summon him.

Albus was keeping his speech and Henry barely listened to it, feeling more concerned every single moment. The students were listening to it, and he absentmindedly wondered how they would react for his resignation.

Toffee opened the door and Henry quickly turned to the elf. "Master Adder must come!" the elf squeaked and Henry looked around the hall, deciding to rise and to walk through the door, looking into the silent space where Juliet was sitting on the floor and crying without any noise. Henry sighed, closed the open music box, and walked to his little sister, putting the music box into his pocket. He lifted her into his arms and held her silently, breathing in a couple of times and walking back to his place, still holding Juliet against his chest. He was painfully aware of the curious looks of students, but he still held the girl and comforted her, not letting the students see her face.

"And now I must inform you that Professor Adder had decided to leave Hogwarts. I hope we all wish him all the best for the future," Albus said and the whole school looked shocked, but the Gryffindors started to clap and cheer at him, and he silently nodded in their direction, acknowledging his old house for the one last time. The entire hall was silenced again by Professor Dumbledore, and he continued his speech, while Henry kept Juliet as close as possible and could feel that she was starting to calm down.

He had already decided that she would grow up somewhere else than England, somewhere else than that time, and he had already decided that he would find a way to make her nightmares stop.

* * *

_April 14th, 1996_

Juliet ran in the woods as fast as she could, just trying to get her body to the limit. She didn't care that her lungs were crying out for air, and she certainly didn't care that her heart was beating fast. It was close to nine, the time Henry usually woke up, and she had been running already for the past hour in the woods close to Tärnaby.

She slowed down her speed and in the end stopped in front of their home. It wasn't a big manor as their home in England had been, but a more comfortable villa in the north of Sweden. There were many unused rooms, and only she and her brother lived there, but it was still very dear to her. The white window frames, the brownish rock, the yellow paint on the wooden walls... it all was a home to her. Her home was in the cold Scandinavian winters, in the midnight sun shining upon the lake close to their home and in the house that she had been living in for the past fourteen years.

In addition, it was her birthday. The thought made her smile and she stretched her worn muscles in the shadows of the trees, wondering absentmindedly what Henry had got for her. He hadn't said anything about it, but Juliet had a feeling that he might have given her a clock, and almost every year her guess had been right.

Of course, since their father had been a clocksmith, it had run in the family to teach it to the children. Henry had taught her everything she knew about machineries and complicated designs, and she had learned it all eagerly. It had made her feel like she actually belonged to her family, like the secrets Henry had passed on to her were a part of her true self. Henry had told her about time travelling, about the wonders their time-turners could do and she had been curious of all the things he had taught her. She had always asked questions and Henry had seemed pleased that she had wanted to learn as much as it was possible for her.

As she walked to the house, she felt a certain pain inside her. Sure, Henry was very dear to her and the best big brother she could have ever wished for, but it still didn't remove the empty void in her that the death of their parents' had left inside. All she really wished for was that one day she could see her parents again, that she could talk with her mother and her father, and she sighed as she acknowledged it would never be possible.

Henry was sitting in the library and Juliet could already feel that he was deep in his thoughts as he stared down on his hands, looking at the package in them. She smiled sadly to herself and Henry lifted his eyes up to hers, smiling warmly at her.

"Happy birthday, little sister," he said gently and rose gracefully, taking Juliet into his arms and hugging her softly, making her feel like there was nothing wrong in the whole wide world. Henry had already guessed the troubles in her mind many years earlier, and he had done the best he could to make her feel like a normal person again. Juliet remembered all those nights when he had sat by her, just watching over her and listening to the silent melody of the familiar music box. She remembered how her brother had taught her that sometimes the deepest wounds weren't the ones that hurt the most. He had helped her through many problems with her mind, and she was grateful.

"You are getting older," Henry sighed sadly and looked at her for a moment with an old, familiar twinkle in his eyes that told Juliet that he wasn't really serious about it. "One day you'll be an adult and I'll be old," he murmured and Juliet couldn't help but smirk at the comment.

"Oh, didn't I already make you feel old?" she asked him with an innocent tone and Henry snorted.

"More and more every single day," he answered her and let her go, giving her the gift wrapped in gold. Juliet looked down at it for a moment until gently removing the wrapper and looking at the beautiful, silvery clock.

She had known Henry was very talented in the art of horology, but she had never seen a more beautiful watch. The lid was formed with filigree ornaments that reminded Juliet of lace, and the clock board had been engraved to show an owl and a wolf together. She looked at her big brother, smiling gently and hugging him tightly, and he answered the hug. Only Henry could make her a watch that had the exact features of both of their animagus forms.

"It's beautiful," she whispered to him and Henry laughed gently.

"I'm glad you like it," he answered her. Juliet ended the hug and smiled at him warmly, and Henry looked at her kindly. "Go get changed and come back when you are ready. We have to discuss about your education."

* * *

_September 10th, 1977_

Juliet felt like it was not a good morning to get out of her bed, but she still dragged herself up. Her eyes were tingling oddly and she was quite sure it wouldn't stop in a while, and that made her feel pissed off. If it weren't for some stupid inter-house rivalries she wouldn't have to use the sunglasses Henry had quickly conjured her in the hospital wing. Juliet sighed as she put them on.

It was only her second day at Hogwarts and she already had a feeling that there would be many interesting happenings during the year. Juliet was pulling on the black shorts she always used during the summers while running and then quickly pulled her hair on a ponytail so it wouldn't get stuck in various things in the woods. It was only six o'clock on a Saturday morning and probably everyone else was still asleep, but she was looking for her trainers from her trunk and after she found them, she quickly sneaked out of the small room that had been given to her. It was no wonder the Slytherin girls didn't want to sleep next to her – for all they knew she could have been a half-blood, or even worse in their opinions, a muggleborn. And maybe the thought she was a bit unstable, at least after the stunt she had pulled on with Mulciber.

Juliet shook her head silently and left the Slytherin dungeon, making her way to the closest exit. Henry had drawn a map showing all of the secret passages he knew about in the castle and it made her feel like she had an advantage. Teachers were shown many hidden corridors that students didn't know about, and Henry had just said that it would probably be best for her to know the fastest ways to run through the castle.

Once outside she started to stretch her muscles, looking around the grounds. It was a cool, Scottish morning, but she didn't complain about the weather. At least it wasn't raining, and that was a huge bonus in her opinion.

She started into the direction of Forbidden Forest, running on the edge of it for a couple of minutes until deciding to run around the Black Lake. Juliet let her thoughts wander off to different days, to different places and she let her feet guide her.

It started to rain halfway through her morning jog and she sped up, deciding that if she ran fast enough she wouldn't get that wet. The sky was gray with clouds and Juliet wondered if it would always be like that in Scotland. She could have casted a water repelling spell on herself, but decided that a little rain wouldn't hurt her.

She was almost completely soaked when she was back at the castle and she quickly made her way to the Slytherin dungeons, avoiding the use of the corridors she knew most of the Slytherins would take to the Great Hall. She didn't want to run into anyone in that hour and since she wasn't sure if it was allowed to leave the common rooms early in the morning, she sneaked from shadow to shadow and finally into the Slytherin common room.

For her surprise, many people were already out of bed and they all seemed to turn their eyes to her. Juliet held her head high and noticed Severus sitting in a corner. "Did you have fun outside?" he asked her calmly and Juliet snorted.

"Yeah, though it could rain a little less," she murmured while going to her dorm room. She heard snickers behind her and rolled her eyes as she locked the door behind her, quickly going to the bathroom and taking a shower before putting on dry clothes. Almost everything she owned was either black or dark grey, and she ended up wearing black stockings, a black skirt (she admitted to herself it was much shorter than many teachers would have approved) and a dark grey jumper. She quickly pulled her hair on a bun on top of her head and dried it, glancing at herself on the mirror to make sure everything looked nice enough. She took her clock from the nightstand, hid it underneath her jumper and then walked into the common room, not minding the looks she was receiving from the other students.

Severus was waiting at her on the common room door, looking very serious in his completely black clothing and Juliet made a note to herself to be careful around him. He seemed to realise that there was something else on her that she let the world see, and that made her more cautious around everyone else. The man nodded his head at her and joined her as they walked through the silent corridors of Hogwarts and Juliet wondered just how long it would take him to ask about where she was that morning.

"They are taking bets in there how long it will take until you get into serious trouble," he told her silently as they walked through the halls and Juliet quickly glanced at his face, noticing the empty look on it. She absentmindedly fingered her wand and made a mental not to be always ready for a fight.

"I don't doubt it. It seems like some of your friends don't approve my behaviour," she answered him silently and waited for his response. They could hear the noises coming from before them from the Great Hall and Juliet wondered if Severus really understood that their friendship might do him harm.

"I think they are just annoyed of the fact that they don't know anything about you," he ended up murmuring and for the first time that morning Juliet smiled.

"Well, you can tell them to mind their own business," she grinned devilishly and Severus stared at her as if he couldn't believe his own ears.

"There are a lot of heirs from pureblooded families in Slytherin. They could crush you like an insect if they wanted to," he told her with an unbelieving tone and Juliet smiled sadly.

"My family has been having this name for over a thousand years. It is one of the oldest you can find in the wizarding Britain, and the fact that this house doesn't recognise the name simply comes from the fact that most of the lines are already dead. As far as I know, only I, my brother and an odd cousin are still alive," she sighed and Severus frowned.

"An odd cousin?" he asked her and Juliet looked away from him. He realised they had already reached the Great Hall and now they were walking towards the Slytherin table.

"A second cousin from my mother's side I have never met. And, as far as I'm concerned, I wish not to ever meet him," she sat down on the table and stared at the other side of the Great Hall where some Gryffindors were joking around in their table.

"I thought you would have wanted to meet anyone that is related to you if you have such a small family," Severus murmured and Juliet shook her head.

"It's complicated. More complicated than I could possibly try to explain," she said and poured some tea for herself, drinking a bit of it and turning her eyes back to Severus. He still was waiting for an explanation and Juliet rubbed her temples, thinking hard about it. She knew she couldn't let the Slytherins know whom she was related to, and she remembered how Henry had warned her multiple times about speaking parseltongue or showing her clock in the public, or telling them about her family more than she could afford of. This was exactly the kind of situation she had hoped to avoid.

"We have certain differences in opinions when it comes to muggles and muggleborns," she said silently and Severus stared at her. He couldn't quite believe his ears. _Did she just say that she didn't believe that purebloods were supreme? _was all he could think about for a moment and he stared at the woman intensely. Juliet started to eat her breakfast with the sunglasses on her face, and Severus couldn't see her eyes. He had no idea of what was going on inside her head and it felt odd since he had studied Legilimency for situations like these. He wanted to know who his cousin was and why Juliet wasn't like most of the members of pureblood families.

In the meantime, the Great Hall was beginning to fill with students coming to enjoy their breakfast and Juliet turned her head sharply at the door where the Marauders were standing awkwardly. Severus noted that Lily and Lupin seemed to be dragging Potter and Black into the direction of their table, and both of the boys looked like they were not very comfortable with the situation. It must have been the first time any teacher made them to apologise formally to another student.

"Five galleons that Black is going to flirt with you," Severus murmured at the girl and Juliet barely could contain her laughter. She quickly casted a glance at Severus and rose an eyebrow at him, clearly not believing his words.

"Be ready to pay," she murmured back as they were getting closer and Severus shook his head, just waiting for them to open their mouths.

Potter looked uncomfortable and Severus enjoyed every minute of their anguish. Juliet straightened her back and looked at the Marauders, clearly showing them that she was waiting for their apology.

"I am really sorry about getting you to the infirmary on your first day," Potter murmured silently and Juliet looked at him behind her glasses, slowly taking them off and letting them see how red her eyes still were. She noticed that the boys got more uncomfortable by this.

"I'm sorry we nearly ruined your pretty eyes," Black slipped in and Juliet rolled her eyes and shook her head, and the boys looked like they didn't know what to do. She turned her head to Severus who smirked.

"I told you," he just stated calmly and Juliet put the sunglasses back on, clearly not comfortable with the bright lights of the Great Hall.

"I accept the apology, but if you ever end up doing something like this, I will personally break your noses," she told them with a calm voice and Severus couldn't help but smirk. Lily looked quite uncomfortable, but she realised that Juliet probably didn't know who they actually were.

"I'm Lily Evans, this is Remus Lupin and these two morons are James Potter and Sirius Black," she introduced everyone to Juliet and she nodded her head.

"Juliet Adder," she offered her name back and looked at the door for a moment, clearly thinking about something. "I would appreciate if you didn't tell the story of my big brother that much around the Gryffindor common room. I don't mind Gryffindors, but it seems like the Slytherins already have a grudge on me," she noted dully and the Marauders looked at each other quickly. Severus snorted and Juliet raised an eyebrow at him.

"How come the Slytherins are already against you?" Lily asked the girl curiously and she smiled.

"Sit the breakfast with us and I'll tell," Juliet said calculatingly and the guys looked at each other. Black and Potter quickly walked to the other side of the Great Hall, but Lily and Lupin sat down on their table. Juliet noticed that Severus wasn't comfortable with being close to those two, but she didn't comment on it in any way.

"It might have something to do with the fact that I nearly hexed Mulciber last morning, they are spreading a rumour about me trying to kill Severus and Slughorn is already taking me under his wings. On the other hand, they just have a tendency to not like people whose background they don't know," Juliet stated lightly and Lily and Lupin quickly glanced at each other.

"You shouldn't probably tell that to them, seeing as the other is the Head Girl," Severus spoke to Juliet and the girl smiled wickedly.

"Oh well. You won't be getting me into trouble, will you?" she smiled charmingly and Lupin looked quite dazzled while Lily laughed at her words.

"It's about a time that someone puts the Slytherins into an order," she stated and Juliet smiled. Severus was slowly relaxing, letting Juliet to take care of the conversation, and when other Slytherins came into the Great Hall for breakfast, they were already so deep that they didn't notice how others sneered at them.

Moreover, it was a beginning of a friendship for Juliet, Remus and Lily.


	5. Chapter 4: You Are The Water In My Lungs

A/N: So, the winter break is over and school is back. The next holiday is on Easter and only for 4 days, and I have a full timetable until the middle of April. This means the updates may become irregular. But enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

It had been almost a month since Juliet had arrived and during that time Severus had not once seen a letter being delivered at her. Yet on that very day in the beginning of October, a white-greyish falcon landed next to her with a letter on its leg, and Juliet had an amused grin on her lips as she took the letter and the falcon snitched a little of her food.

"Whose bird is that?" Severus asked her curiously and Juliet lay down the letter in front of her.

"Lionheart belongs to me," she smiled and Severus could hear the collective gasp from the people around them. He was quite sure why they were shocked and he quickly got confirmation for his doubts.

"Lionheart? That is like a treason!" he could hear Nott murmuring and Juliet petted the bird calmly. Lionheart screeched softly and Severus knew that the bird was clearly very fond of her.

"Do you think they would freak out even more if I told them that the name comes from a muggle fairytale?" Juliet murmured under her breath to Severus and he couldn't help but to smirk while holding his laugh inside.

"They would skin you alive. It is bad enough that you let Evans and Lupin sit at the table since they aren't purebloods," he answered with a low voice and Juliet smiled as she opened the letter. Severus understood why it didn't bother her that any others could read the letter – after all, it wouldn't have made them anything since they probably didn't know the language.

"What is it saying?" Severus asked the girl and she absentmindedly looked at him, then back at the letter and thought for a moment.

"Nothing too important, to be honest. It's just an update on what is going on back in Sweden," she answered him, not even realising that for the first time she actually told him where she lived. She didn't notice Severus staring at her.

Juliet read a little more of the letter, growing pale at the same time. Severus noticed something was wrong and he looked at the girl sharply when she hid the letter in her pocket and looked at the Gryffindor table, gently petting the falcon.

"Can you borrow a bit of parchment?" she asked Severus kindly and he pulled a piece of it out of his bag. Juliet quickly wrote something on it, transfigured a strand of her hair into a ribbon and tied it to Lionheart's leg. The falcon took off nearly immediately and Juliet watched it as it flew out of the Great Hall, then rising from the table and looking at Severus for a moment.

"If I'm late from Transfiguration, please let Professor McGonagall know that it's about family business," she told him politely and before Severus could answer anything, Juliet had already sneaked out of the Great Hall. He was left to wonder what the letter had said.

Juliet quickly went through the school towards the Room of Requirement, hoping that no other student knew about it. She was fairly sure that the teachers wouldn't appreciate it if she decided to stay the whole day in there, but she just needed a silent place to gather her thoughts and she had already noticed that the peace wasn't provided in the Slytherin dungeons.

She couldn't quite believe what Henry had written her. She couldn't quite understand why the Dark Lord was coming to Slytherin dungeons that night and why Henry wanted her to meet their only living relative. All she knew was that she was very close to a panic attack and that she just needed a place to be for a moment, a place where she could let herself gather her thoughts while actually trying to assimilate the information.

The door to the room was revealed to her and she quickly went inside, closing the door behind her and just fell down on a soft armchair the room had provided for her in front of a warm fire. Juliet could feel herself shaking and she closed her eyes. She felt like someone was strangling her throat and it was getting hard to breathe.

Why must Tom come there? Why must the person that was behind her deepest scars decide to turn up in the place she thought she would be safe? Juliet felt tears running down her face and she hugged her knees tightly, just sobbing silently in the empty room. She had thought that she could keep everything under control, that she could live her life without the old, familiar pain that had been bothering her for over fifteen years, but she had been wrong.

She knew she had to gather her Occlumency walls before that night and keep them strong, because she already knew that she looked too much like Merope Gaunt to pass it as a coincident. Tom would recognise her and she would have to tell him her name, and eventually he would realise that she was actually the last female member of his family. The whole thought made her sick to the bone.

"Toffee?" she asked with a faint voice and the elf popped in front of her. The elf looked happy to see her and Juliet smiled kindly at her.

"Could you bring me some tea, please?" she asked her kindly and the elf looked at her with her big, brown eyes.

"Yes Mistress! Will Mistress be having cookies, too?" Toffee asked excitedly and Juliet couldn't help but smile at the creature.

"No, thank you." The elf popped out of the room and came back mere seconds later with a tray of tea and Juliet nodded her head at it and smiled, and Toffee responded to the kind smile as she apparated back to the kitchens, presumably.

After Toffee was gone from the room, Juliet poured tea for herself, sat silently in the chair, staring at the fire, and took the watch hidden beneath her shirt into her hand. She opened it silently and looked at the owl and the wolf together, remembering how easy it had all seen a year ago when they had decided together that she would be coming to Hogwarts. Henry had taught her everything he knew, made sure she was ready to take her NEWTs even without studying at all. Her big brother had made sure that she could focus on making friends that might help them in the war in the future.

The future. Her past. Juliet silently realised that some of the people she went to school now were probably dead already when she was growing up. It was hard to think about, but she had no other choice. She needed people around her, she needed a circle of friends to rely on, and she knew that even Severus had been lonely. Now, in the Room of Requirement, she felt even lonelier thinking about the fact that she would be deserted once everyone learned about her family.

The clock ticked silently in her hand and she wondered how long it would take before people would start to get worried. She still felt shaken, but as she drank the tea Toffee had brought her, she felt herself relax bit by bit. The narrow hands told her she was already six minutes late from the class, but she couldn't find the energy to care. All she could think about was that later that day she would need to do something she was absolutely terrified of doing.

Juliet looked around the room and realised there wasn't nearly anything in there. With a wand in her hand, she sighed and took the bag from the floor, going through it and looking for some spare parchment and ink. She thought about it for a moment and then wrote her message onto the paper, tied it with a ribbon she had transfigured from her hair and quickly transfigured her bag into a letter holder. Juliet quickly put the letter inside, tied it around her ankle and closed her eyes.

Only when she felt a lot smaller did she open her eyes and quickly fastened the letter holder with her beak. She knew it was probably not the smartest idea to fly to Transfiguration class in her Animagus form, but she simply couldn't sit through all of the classes that day. She quickly flew to the door and the room opened it for her, and she flew through the corridor and out of the first open window.

Juliet had enjoyed the feeling of flying ever since she had achieved her Animagus form. It had taken nearly a year of practicing about it every day under Henry's instructions, but in the end, she had ended up as an owl. Her white feathers swayed in the wind under her wings and she absentmindedly looked for the Transfiguration class.

The windowsill was wide enough for her to land on and she knocked on the window with her beak. Professor McGonagall clearly had been waiting for something and as Lily opened the window (Juliet noted that the Marauders looked at her frowning), she flew to Professor McGonagall's desk and let the older woman take the letter from the container.

Juliet looked around the room as Professor McGonagall read her letter and then frowned at her bird-form. Juliet decided that she had been there long enough and flew out of the open window before anyone else would start to notice the similarities between her two forms.

She flew above Hogwarts and enjoyed the view. After a while, she landed on the roof of Astronomy tower and sat at the highest peak of the whole castle, feeling like nothing could touch her in there. Sometimes, when she felt that running wasn't good enough, she would fly to a mountain and sit on the highest spot for hours, just looking at the world below her and think about everything that had made her feel like going somewhere else to be in her thoughts. And sometimes, on top of the mountain, she would see the world as it was, and she would understand how to solve the problem. However, she wasn't on a mountain, and she couldn't see the familiar forest, so she sat alone.

Juliet didn't know how much time had passed but it had started to rain. She changed back into her human form, holding tightly of the bag she had transfigured back into its original and slid off the roof, holding on the edge and swung herself into the Astronomy tower. Her clothes were soaked through and she sighed as she cast a drying spell on herself, walked down the stairs of the tower while checking the time on her watch.

She had missed Transfiguration and Charms, but if she wanted, with a little running she could be in DADA right on time. She jogged comfortably towards the classroom and was there barely before their Professor, a greyed man called Gideon Bagnold. Severus was immediately next to her and looking at her through his startlingly dark eyes.

"Where were you?" he asked her with a low voice as Professor Bagnold let them inside and the students chose their places. Severus and Juliet sat down in the back of the glass, right behind the Marauders, who clearly were trying to listen to their conversation.

"Sitting on the roof, enjoying the rain," she murmured back sarcastically and she noticed that Severus wasn't quite sure if she was telling the truth or just snapping back at him. Lily turned quickly back at her and looked at her curiously.

"McGonagall asked us to tell you that she wants to talk to you this evening, at five," Lily informed her and Juliet sighed, rubbing her temples.

"Did Flitwick react to my disappearance?" she asked Severus and the man shook his head.

"He didn't even seem to notice you were gone," Severus answered and Juliet stared at the desk. It was surprising that Flitwick hadn't noticed her disappearance, but on the other hand, maybe he was ready to look past some of the things she did while in school because of Henry's reputation.

Their teacher started to talk about Patronuses and Juliet looked outside of the window. She had learned the spell years earlier and it was anything hard for her to create. After all, growing up in a household where the other member had been teaching people how to create Patronuses had rubbed off on her.

"Miss Adder, would you mind to create a Patronus since you seem to be quite bored?" Professor Bagnold asked her and she was taken away from her thoughts. Juliet rose from her place, let her wand fall down on her hand and thought about her memories, looking for something that hadn't been infected by pain and sorrow. One of her earliest memories surfaced and she raised her wand without thinking about it.

"_Expecto Patronum_," she muttered silently and she could hear the gasp from the class. Juliet opened her eyes and looked at the wolf in front of her, smiling at it. She grinned at the stunned look of the Professor and decided to amaze him a little more.

"Hello," she spoke to her Patronus and as soon as she had stopped speaking, the Patronus ran out of the room, disappearing from the view and Juliet sat down, smirking confidently at the stunned looks around the classroom. A minute passed without anyone speaking and a white owl, identical to her Animagus form, flew through the wall, setting its incorporeal body on her desk and it looked at her.

"Goodbye," the owl answered and Juliet looked at the Patronus sadly. The owl faded away and the Professor stared at her for a moment.

"Thirty points to Slytherin," he murmured silently and turned his back at her. Juliet felt like every pair of eyes in the classroom was trying to take a look of her, but she only minded the one that wasn't looking at her direction. Severus seemed to be deep in thought and she realised that he might have been the only one that had made the connection between Henry's Patronus and the owl earlier that morning.

She suddenly felt the joy disappear from herself and she stared once again out of the window, not listening to what the Professor was talking about and just thinking about the big mistake she had just made. It started to seem like she would need to do something with the situation, but she had no idea what would make it controllable again. Severus was too intelligent for his own good.

The class rose from their desks and Juliet knew they were going to practice the spell. Severus looked straight at her and they rose simultaneously at the same time, walking into a corner where they could be relatively alone. Almost immediately Severus leaned closer to her.

"I take it as the owl was your Animagus form," he muttered to her and Juliet looked him straight into the eye. She just nodded her head and then looked around the classroom where everyone else was practicing the spell.

"His changed when I achieved it. Mine has always been the same," she muttered quietly back and Severus nodded his head, keeping his wand down. Juliet observed the scene around them carefully until she raised her voice for him to hear it.

"Try the spell, Severus. Even one, happy memory is enough if your life has been miserable," she said and Severus froze. How could the girl know? Juliet looked at him for a moment and then stared at the floor.

"I've seen the look in your eyes when you think no-one sees and it is very similar to mine. I think that you've lost someone very close, too," Juliet observed and Severus felt a lump in his throat. He nodded his head once. His mother. Lily. The only people that had cared for him in the whole world. One had died in the hands of his father; the other had never forgiven him, not in words.

He suddenly realised that Juliet cared. The girl seemed to notice him when no one else was willing to even think about him, and she seemed to spend time with him because they were so familiar with the pain they were carrying inside. How would the girl react to the fact that he had taken the Dark Mark last summer? Would she hate him just like everyone else did?

"Try the spell, for me. Show me what protects you," the girl asked him silently and Severus looked deep inside those blue eyes that seemed to see more than anyone else had seen in him. She knew about the pain, and she still didn't run away from him. She knew it herself, and she welcomed his shattered form into her shattered world.

He knew what to think about while casting the spell and looked at the classroom full of other students, raising his wand.

"_Expecto Patronum_," he said with a stern voice, and a silvery animal exploded from his wand. The whole classroom stopped to stare at the Patronus, and Juliet smiled sadly as she looked at it. Severus stared at his protector without really believing his eyes, and he casted a quick glance at Juliet.

The girl looked at the falcon flying in the classroom and Severus knew it was Lionheart. A slow, soft smile rose on her lips and she looked happy while looking at the bird that flew towards them, landing on his shoulder and then fading away.

"Ah, Mr Snape! Twenty points to Slytherin!" Professor Bagnold beamed and Severus and Juliet stared at each other. The Marauders immediately came closer to them, even though they seemed to be avoiding Severus a bit. They started to ask questions about how they had made their Patronuses, and Juliet told them best she could of what kind of memories could help while Severus stood against the wall, staring at the classroom where silvery mist was formed in every corner.

It was no surprise that Potter and Lily created Patronuses that matched each other, Severus noted to himself. He looked at the stag and the doe walking around the classroom together all the while Juliet tried to help Sirius with the spell. Severus noticed that Sirius wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was enjoying her companionship more than trying to actually do the spell correctly. And, for his surprise, he felt a sting of jealousy.

_Juliet can have her own life, _he tried to remind himself, but he couldn't help his feelings as the girl held Sirius's hand while showing the spell. He hated the fact that Juliet almost never touched him, but she let herself touch the person who had very nearly killed him. _She doesn't know about it. _Severus did his best to contain his anger, but the simple act of intimacy made him sick.

Juliet finally gave up and tried to help Lupin and Pettigrew all the while Severus stood against the wall deep in his thoughts. Only a handful of people had achieved to do the spell correctly, and their Patronuses had been much weaker than his or hers. He made a mental note to ask her about it, and when the bell rang, they quickly exited the classroom together.

But, while making their way for lunch in the Great Hall, he suddenly forgot his thoughts as Peeves started to chase them and they ended up running all the way down there. They made it to the Slytherin table right on time, both panting heavily and faintly smiling at each other. And Severus just knew that his heart couldn't take it if he lost her too.

* * *

Juliet had just had the most boring lesson of Ancient Runes in her whole life. Simply put, the Professor was almost as boring as Binns, but they had been talking about Middle-Age Icelandic runes for the whole lesson. For Juliet, who had read many Icelandic sagas in original runes, it was simply a very dull lesson. As she was walking through the castle to the Slytherin common room, she was hoping that the homework wouldn't take too much time from her preparations for the night. And, she reminded herself, she still needed to see Professor McGonagall before dinner.

She found Severus in the Slytherin dungeons and simply sat next to him. Severus looked at her curiously as Juliet took her books out of her bag.

"I have never been more bored in my whole life," Juliet sighed and Severus just shook his head as she watched the girl pulling the Transfiguration book out and opening it in front of her.

"I take it as you were talking about Scandinavian runes?" he answered back and Juliet nodded once.

"For future reference only, a few good translating spells are pretty much enough if you are not interested of the hidden meanings of the text," Juliet told him and glanced the Transfiguration book quickly, frowning as she read the information from there.

"It's good to have a walking encyclopaedia close," he muttered and Juliet rolled her eyes. Severus looked at her as she quickly scanned through their Transfiguration text and then rolled open a parchment, adding something to the bottom of it and then rolling it back closed.

"Are you already finished with the essay?" Severus asked from her, feeling frustrated and she looked at him for a moment.

"What you need to understand about the text is in here," she pointed down her finger on the text and Severus read it through for a couple of times, then realising how simple it actually was.

"Thank you," he nodded in her direction and quickly wrote the information into his essay in different words. Juliet moved onto the DADA homework and Severus looked at her for a moment, then realising the thought that had been bothering him earlier that day.

"How come our Patronuses were much stronger than anyone else's?" he asked her and Juliet raised her eyes from the text, thinking about it for a moment all the while frowning. Severus already knew that habit of hers when she was deep in her thoughts.

"I think it is because we have to protect ourselves more than the others. Sure, Lily and James could create their Patronuses because they are so happy, but our misery seems to strengthen ours," she told him after a moment of silence. Severus looked at her and their eyes met for a moment, and he could see how her eyes seemed to hide something, seemed to avoid looking at something.

"There's something more to it than your parents just died, isn't there?" he asked her after a moment and Juliet looked away, biting her lip. Severus saw how she clearly fought against something deep inside herself, and he realised why she actually never mentioned them free willingly. Something was not quite right in their deaths, and Severus understood that she did her best not to think about it most of the time.

_There is, _Juliet wanted to tell him. _There is so much more than I let anyone else know._

"Not much," she said instead, and Severus looked at her for a few very long moments before returning to his essay. They worked together in silence for a couple of minutes, in which Juliet let her thoughts get away from the memories she kept occluded even from herself. She knew her weak spots better than anyone else did, and she knew that that night she could not let anything sip through her surface. She focused on her schoolwork, finishing the DADA essay and then turning to runes.

"You always say that something isn't important when it actually means a lot to you," Severus said silently and Juliet lifted her eyes from the paper, looking at him. It was clear for her that he had been watching her for a while already, and she bit down her sarcastic words, looking for something that would help her tell him what she actually wanted to say, but Henry's letter weighed on her pocket and the clock around her neck ticked slowly, making the moment change with every tick.

In the end, she just lowered her eyes and averted his gaze sadly. She knew that it would be easier if she could just talk with anyone, but she had been hiding it for too long already. She had been hiding her deepest scars beneath her clothes, never showing people who she truly was and only Henry had seen her before she had learned how to smile and how to laugh. No one else in her whole life had seen her true self, and it was worrying that Severus could notice that something was a bit off with her.

Juliet wanted to take the clock from beneath her robes to check the time, but she had never shown it to anyone else, so she just cast a quick tempus to see it was already time to go meet Professor McGonagall. She said goodbye to Severus, put her bag in her room and quickly left the dungeons all the while calming herself down and gathering her Occlumency walls.

As she knocked on Professor McGonagall's door exactly at five o'clock, she noticed how the whole school seemed oddly silent. Juliet was ripped apart from her thoughts as the Professor opened the door for her and invited her in. Juliet walked there awkwardly, staring at her feet.

"Sit down, Miss Adder," Professor said and Juliet quickly obeyed the older woman. Professor McGonagall wrote something on a parchment and then turned her stern eyes at Juliet.

"Mr Snape said your disappearance this morning had something to do with family. Is everything alright?" the Professor asked her with a kind voice and Juliet nodded her head, feeling relieved.

"Everything is fine, Professor. I just got a letter from Henry," she smiled back at the Professor. McGonagall nodded her head and looked at her.

"The letter that owl delivered this morning was quite worrying," the Professor noted and Juliet looked down at her hands, sighing once.

"I was having a panic attack when I wrote it. Feathers was kind enough to deliver it before I had time to think about it," she answered the Professor, using the name Henry called her in her Animagus form. The Professor looked at her for a moment, and then nodded her head.

"Are you sure you are fine, Miss Adder? I do know that I am not a Slytherin, but as the former Head of House for Henry, it seems natural to look after you," the Professor's eyes seemed to be too observant, and Juliet wished that more people would be like her. Minerva McGonagall didn't hate her because she was a Slytherin, but she welcomed her into the Lion's den. And, for a small moment, Juliet wished she could just tell the woman why it wasn't getting any better.

"It's getting easier, but thank you for your concern, Professor," Juliet smiled her faked smile at her, acting like a true Slytherin hiding all the emotional trouble behind her walls that never crumbled. She needed someone to talk to, more than anything else, and she knew that she couldn't take it much longer without finding someone. She was afraid that Severus would hate her because of her problems and she wasn't quite sure if Lily would understand her.

"Well, if you are sure about it," McGonagall looked at her strictly and Juliet's smile didn't falter. "There was another reason why I asked you to join me. I was rather curious of what Henry has been doing for the past years. He hasn't been even sending any letters."

Juliet was glad to explain to Professor McGonagall that they had been living under Fidelius charm and that for the past couple of years Henry had been doing research of various topics, working on new kind of spells and achieving a second Animagus form. The Professor was quite happy to hear about his works, and the woman dismissed her from the office and once outside, Juliet took a deep breath all the while trying to make sure her defences wouldn't crumble down. She stared out of the window for a couple of moments, then deciding to leave for the dinner.

The Great Hall was already packed with people as Juliet looked for a space in her own House's table, she suddenly realised that something was not quite right. She looked around her confusedly, trusting her instincts and frowned, and she confusedly sat down on her own table, right next to Severus who looked at her worriedly.

"What's wrong?" he asked and Juliet frowned, still trying to figure out what actually had drawn her attention in the full room.

"I don't know," she said silently and looked still around, searching for the reason for her uneasiness.

Juliet felt like someone was watching her, and she quickly realised that the someone was at the Head Table. Her eyes turned into that direction gracefully, and pinpointed where the feeling was coming from. Someone, and she didn't know whom, was watching her from next to the door while being disillusioned.

Juliet automatically had her wand in her hand as she could catch the faint glimmering move towards the Slytherin table, closer to where she was sitting. Severus was trying to figure out what she actually was looking at, and she hoped that the people around her would actually understand what was happening right in front of their eyes.

The figure stopped right behind her, next to the wall and Juliet turned her eyes in front of her, watching at the wall behind her from the reflection on her goblet and still having her wand in her hand. She knew that it would be useless to try to eat while being so tense, so she just drank some pumpkin juice and listened to Severus's talking with half an ear.

She was the first one to notice the figure to turn visible and turned towards it with wand steadily in her hand, silencing the whole Great Hall as she had jumped on her legs and now looked at the tall man with an astonished look on her face.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him dumbly and the man grinned mischievously. There was certain glitter in his eyes as he calmly lay against the wall, staring at his younger sister with an occluded look on his stressed face.

"I came to see you, of course. Isn't that what brothers do?" he asked her with an innocent tone. Juliet just rolled her eyes and sat down, and the other Slytherins made room for Henry. There were curious whispers all around the Great Hall, but Henry seemed to pay no mind. He did look at Severus, whom he offered his hand.

"Henry Adder, this little menace's older brother," he stated calmly and Severus took his hand, unsure of himself.

"Severus Snape, her friend," he said carefully and quickly glance at Juliet, who seemed to accept the label. Henry raised an eyebrow at Juliet and she just shrugged. Severus had a feeling that the common gesture meant more for them than for anyone else at the table.

"I can't be here for a long time, so let's make this quick," Henry quickly said to her in Swedish, knowing that everyone else was listening to them and he hoped no one else understood the language like them. Juliet looked at him seriously. "I know you are angry about the letter, but you need to do it. I know you are scared and I am terrified for you, but it seems like it is the best way to make sure we won't get hurt by him anymore."

"How can you be so sure? What if the information makes him a bigger threat?" Juliet accosted and Henry looked at her for a while seriously, with certain emptiness in his eyes.

"Family is always family. There are certain things in old families that mark a big deal more than just an ideology, Juliet," he answered her quickly and Juliet looked at him for a long time, sighing sadly.

"What if he hurts me?" she asked Henry with a worried tone and he rubbed her back, trying to comfort her the best he could.

"Then I will kill him," Henry stated calmly and Juliet looked at him for a long while. The man rose and looked at her for a moment, feeling everyone's eyes on him. Juliet knew that her big brother was dead serious about the matter and it was a very, very frightening thought.

"I trust you more than anyone else, little sister," he looked at her and she looked very worried for a moment.

"I'll send a Patronus this evening," she said silently, Henry left the Great Hall before anyone could stop him, and Juliet stared after him, feeling suddenly very lonely.


	6. Chapter 5: Suffer Softly In Your Room

A/N: Another chapter. Not too much to say for this chapter or regarding my personal life, schedules are still too full for my liking.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Juliet was sitting in the Slytherin dungeon when everyone else came back from the dinner. She had one of her favourite books in her hands and she was sitting alone in the corner Severus usually occupied. Everyone casted glances at her and she was obvious to it, but she didn't raise her eyes from the text. Severus had come in to the common room, but he had not come close to her, and Juliet was grateful for it. All she needed was time and solitude as she pretended to read the book.

His brother scared her. The serious look in Henry's eyes when he stated that he would kill Tom if he ever hurt her was frightening because she had never seen his other side. Henry had always been the loving older brother that never got angry with her. Even though he was very strict with her, he had never yelled at her, and she had a feeling that Henry absolutely loathed Tom Riddle.

Juliet bit her lip worriedly as she tried to calm herself down from her worried thoughts. It was nerve breaking to him to just show up like that and say things like those, but she knew he had meant good. She just needed to regain her composure and keep her cover through the night, and everything would be fine.

She sensed how most of the people in the common room went to their beds, but she remained in the shadows, quickly glancing over her book to check who were left in there. She noticed Severus being the closest to her, and she suddenly realised why he was there.

She needed to put her eyes down on the text and take in a couple of breaths. She had had her own suspicions about him, but she had never been quite so sure about it. The other people in the room certainly were unsure what to do with her, but as she pretended to read her book, they seemed to slowly forget she was even in there.

She felt a change in the mood and the common room closed behind a character draped in black. Juliet didn't lift her eyes, only turned the next page and actually read the book just to avoid the flood of memories dark hoods seemed to always bring her.

The man removed the hood from his face and Juliet refused to peek at him, knowing full well the man was actually glancing into her direction. The common room was silent for a couple of moments in which time Juliet reached the end of the chapter, put on her bookmark and lowered the book, noticing how the man was still staring at her. And, for her surprise, the man didn't look like the monster she had imagined him to be.

His dark blue eyes were lighted by the fire and the dark curls framed the face, making him look like someone that wasn't actually such a big threat. The look on the pale face was heavily occluded, but Juliet could sense a certain impatience and curiosity coming from him.

"You look like someone I used to know," the man said to her with a silken voice and Juliet smiled mysteriously, just letting her mouth curve the tiniest bit. The game was on, and Juliet rose from her chair, gently smoothing out the wrinkles on her skirt.

"Oh, I don't doubt it," she said lightly and knew how dangerous the game actually was for her. His eyes scanned her and Juliet peacefully stood there, looking completely innocent in his eyes.

"I don't think I have seen you before," the man stated calmly and Juliet walked over to him, offered her hand and he took it firmly.

"Juliet Adder," she said. The man smiled.

"Lord Voldemort." Juliet shook her head with an amused smile on her lips. The man looked surprised about the fact that she wasn't afraid of the name.

"Now, I don't think that is an actual name," she remarked lightly and she could feel Severus's eyes boring into her back. The Dark Lord raised an eyebrow at her and she kept her face in the amused smile.

"Well, if you are not going to tell your name, I am not going to tell you why I look so familiar," Juliet stated lightly and calmly turned her back at him, facing the girls' dormitories and walking silently into that direction.

_One, two, three, four, five..._

She felt a tight grip on her shoulder and she turned around calmly. "Leave us," the Dark Lord was looking at everyone else in the common room and they quickly rose from their chairs. Severus stared at her eyes for a moment, clearly afraid to leave her with his Lord, but Juliet looked strictly into his eyes. _I'm going to be all fine, _her eyes told him, but she could sense his suspicion. In the end, the young man left the room, and she was left alone with the Dark Lord. And from somewhere deep inside her, she found bravery that had not been affected by what had happened fifteen years earlier. The man gestured her to sit down close to the fire and he stared at her.

"My name is Tom Riddle and you seem to know something I don't," he stated silently and Juliet looked at the fire, gently letting her fingers move on the cover of the book.

"Do you recall Miriam and Edgar Adder?" she asked him with a calm voice, turning her eyes into his dark blue ones. The man shook his head and Juliet smiled sadly, turning her eyes back to the fire.

"They were my parents. My father was a clocksmith," Juliet stated with a voice that left no feelings through. She could feel him staring at her and she wet her lips. "They were killed by Death Eaters some fifteen years ago."

The silence in the room was full of hidden words he wouldn't let surface, and Juliet turned her eyes at him. "It still doesn't tell my why you look so familiar," he stated and Juliet looked down on her hands, feeling unsure of how she should say it.

"Who do you think I look like?" Juliet let her eyes meet his, and he could feel how his mind was looking at the surface of her own, but she didn't let it get any deeper.

"My mother." The words were surprisingly civil and Juliet turned her eyes away, knowing that it would be hard for her to say it aloud in front of the man that she had been scared of for so long. The words were haunting her and in the end, she sighed deeply.

"It's because we are related," she said silently, and Lord Voldemort stared at her, not quite believing her words.

"I've had a lot of people saying that to me," he simply stated and Juliet looked down on her hands, wondering how long it would take her to fall asleep that night. She knew the conversation would haunt her dreams and she couldn't just make it go away like every other memory. She knew it would be hard to push her older memories away that night, and she had a feeling that it wouldn't be easy for her to just let that conversation slip away.

"Your mother war Merope Gaunt and your father a muggle called Tom Riddle. Your grandfather was Marvolo Gaunt, the brother of Mortimer Gaunt, who later married Grace Valois. They had a daughter called Miriam, who later married Edgar Adder," Juliet narrated and for the whole time she could feel how the man in front of him stared at her and it was getting unnerving.

"I didn't know about your mother," he said silently and Juliet looked away from his eyes just for a tiny moment. He was clearly thinking about all the things she had said. "I did know my grandfather had a brother, but I never thought the line would still be alive," his eyes bore into hers, and she made herself stay as calm as possible.

"It's barely alive," she stated silently. "As far as I know, you and my brother are my only living relatives," her voice was faint, and she was afraid of what the man in front of her was going to do. He was over 30 years older than she was and she knew that if he decided to kill her, she would stand no chance even with all the things Henry had taught her. She simply could wait for his answer and pray for a miracle.

His eyes looked at her with sudden interest. "Are you a parselmouth?" he blatantly asked her and Juliet nodded her head, biting her lip nervously. Her eyes kept every single feeling inside her, and she wouldn't let him see any weaknesses on her.

"I thought so," he muttered silently, so silently even Juliet had trouble catching it. The man was clearly wondering about it, and she wasn't sure how safe she was. She knew that probably most of the people he had sent away were just waiting for him to call them back into the common room. She knew that they would be ready to hurt her if he just raised a finger.

"I believe we have to meet again, Juliet," the man looked at her, and she felt relief in her body. "It is not every day you learn about having a family. It is also quite late and you should be asleep." His calm voice was almost friendly and Juliet rose from her chair, nodding her head and pondered for a moment if it was wise to ask her question.

"May I call you Tom?" she asked him and the man looked at her dumbfounded.

"You may," he answered her, and Juliet softly smiled at him, walking towards the girls' dorms and then through the door in the end of the corridor. She could still feel her cousin's look on her back as she closed the door, and she quickly casted a silencing spell on her room before sliding down to the floor, staring in front of her.

She had actually made it through. She was actually alive after meeting the Dark Lord, and he had even acknowledged her as family. It had gone much better than she had expected, and she kept her wand in her hand, gathering her thoughts for a few minutes before raising it.

_Expecto Patronum._

The wolf looked at her and she wet her lips nervously. "Everything is fine," she told the wolf and it ran through the opposite wall. Juliet sat on the floor for a couple of moments, trying to regain her composure and calm surface until she walked to her trunk, quickly took her pyjamas from there and then went to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

She brushed her hair, looking at herself from the mirror all the while she did so. She didn't look unhealthy or unnourished, but the look in her eyes had stayed dead for longer than she could remember. She sighed sadly as she undressed and looked at her own body from the mirror, staring at every scar she had on her skin.

All of them hadn't been caused by her parents' murderers, but the ones that weren't had faded away. The deep gushes she had received that day were still there, silvery white against her pale skin. They were always hidden under her clothing, and she knew that she couldn't show them to anyone without having to tell them about it. The patterns on her skin were too familiar to her, and she met her own gaze in the mirror.

It was sad that she was still so fucked up. She couldn't understand why things wouldn't get easier, and she felt frustrated. She didn't want to be the girl whose smile was always a fake one, and she didn't want to stare at herself from the mirror, hating her reflection. She felt the tears on her face and she wiped them away, putting on her pyjamas and then leaving the bathroom, snuggling under her covers.

She lay down on her bed just staring at the ceiling and tears fell down on her face.

Juliet didn't sleep during the entire night. She lay awake just staring at the room and hoped that it would get easier, that her mind could take it all, but she was scared. She was afraid of seeing Severus and talking to him, and she was afraid of what would happen in the future. Henry hadn't answered her Patronus and she just lay there, wondering if she could ever sleep again.

When the morning came, she rose from her bed, changed into her running clothes and braided her hair, looking at herself from the mirror in the corner of her room. The weather had made her to change into warmer clothes and the long black pants covered her legs, the sweatshirt wrapped comfortably around her body as she left the dungeons.

She was tired and she knew that people were going to notice the black circles around her eyes, but she could not lie anymore in her bed. She needed to do something; she needed to run, to feel the need for air and she started.

Her thoughts didn't wander. She was simply too tired to think about anything else than staying up and not falling over, and before she was in a calm state, she was already back at the castle, sweating and breathing hard. It wasn't enough. She needed to run, and she didn't slow down, turning for another lap around the lake, hoping to tire off her mind so it would just shut down.

It was raining and she was soaked through, but she just didn't care. She needed to feel the burn of her lungs, run faster and longer than ever before, and she needed to feel like she was alive again. She knew running wasn't enough, but she couldn't turn into an owl and fly away just because she didn't feel like she was alive. She knew that there were always people who could see her, and she knew that if she just ran a little faster, if her lungs burned a little more, she would find calmness again.

She fell. Juliet didn't know what she had tripped on, but she lay in the courtyard, staring at the sky and feeling like she couldn't move. Every inch of her body was pure pain and she just looked up to the sky, hoping to find some relief in the greyness, but there was none. It was just rain, clouds, more clouds, and more rain. There was no magical cure and she could feel herself shaking with a silent cry.

Somehow she found the energy to force herself to rise, to walk towards the castle even though her whole body protested. Somehow she managed to get through the dungeons to the Slytherin common room, and past all of the people that were there. She could hear them asking questions of her, but she felt like it all was so far away. She just wanted to go sleep, just sleep, but she was freezing.

Someone was calling her name. She recognised it was someone who was important, someone who was a friend, but she couldn't turn and look at the person. She just dragged herself into her room, locked the door and went to the bathroom, put the warm water to stream down on the tub and sat on the edge of it, kicking her trainers into the corner of the room and just sat inside the tub her clothes on, her hair glued to her skin.

She stopped the water from running over the edge and lay down on the water, stared at the bathroom ceiling and shivered because of the coldness inside her. She was freezing even when she lay in the hot water, and she just tried to calm herself down, to tell herself that things were okay. She could hear someone banging at her door and she grimaced at the loud noise breaking her make-believe peace. Finally, she rose from the tub, dried herself and looked for warm clothes, put them on and then went to the door. She warded the room better, made sure no one in the whole school could enter and just fell down on her bed, sobbing silently and wrapping herself under the covers.

She just lay down on her bed and curled up hugging her knees tightly against herself. She just wanted someone to understand, someone to not pity on her, because she was done with the pitying. She didn't need glances from people that didn't understand, she just needed someone to come there and hug her, and she lay on her bed, feeling so tired she could die.

Was it too much to ask? Was it too much to hope for someone who didn't look at the scars but that looked at her, that she could talk with all the things dark inside her mind? The havoc in her mind was too strong for her to close away, and she just needed to have a moment of silence for the dream that had died so many years ago.

"Please open your door, Juliet," a familiar voice said to her and she looked at the silver falcon that she recognised to be Severus's Patronus. It sat on her bed and she knew that he would not give up on her, not after the pain he had seen in her fragile figure. She knew that he was on the other side of the door, trying to get her out of there, and she just sighed, raised herself from the bed and walked to the door, laying her head against it.

"You can't come in, Severus," she said softly to him through the door and slid down on the floor, feeling empty and used. She had seen too much at a too young age, and it haunted her.

"Can I talk to you through the door, then?" the voice asked her, now through the door and Juliet thought about it for a moment.

"I guess you can."

She heard repressed noises from the other side of the door as he probably sat down, and she felt closer to anyone than ever before in her life, and it absolutely broke her heart.

"How long has it been like that?" his soft voice asked her and she held down a cry, just sitting against the door and knew that he had cast one of his spells around him to make their conversation private.

"Ever since I can remember," Juliet answered him. He said nothing for a moment and Juliet shut her eyes, just to hear him better.

"Did... did he cause this?" Severus's voice was concerned and Juliet felt her eyes watering just at the thought. He knew that she had talked with Voldemort last night.

"He just was the trigger," she whispered through the door and just wished that he wouldn't go away, that he would be the first one to stay by her, to listen to her in her darkest moments.

"What happened?" Severus asked her with a soft, comforting voice, and Juliet listened the silkiness of it. It made her feel like he was just there, as if his words were hugging her. It was all she really had. It was all that was pure and clean in her world of war, in her world of destruction. And as she listened to the words, she just felt the need to talk to him.

She spoke about her parents, how she saw endless nightmares every single night, how no-one would really listen to her words other than him. And he sat there, on the other side of the door, and unbeknownst to her, the mask on his face broke as he listened to her, as he listened how lonely she felt in the prison her mind had created for her.

And when she was done speaking, he spoke silently to her about his mother, of the hope he had had in Hogwarts as a child. She heard him talk about how his life had been misery in the one place he had peace from his father. Juliet listened to his every single word being spilled at her through the door, and for the first time in her whole life she felt like there was someone who she could speak to, like there was someone who actually knew pain like she did and who had to live through it just like she needed to.

"Do you think it ever gets easier?" she asked through the door, and she heard a sigh from him.

"I really don't know," he answered. For the first time in her life she felt like someone wasn't lying at her, like someone didn't just want to make her feel better and then push her away. "I hope it will, because I can't live like this," he confessed to her, and Juliet faintly smiled as he listened to his words.

"And the worst part is that people don't really care," she told him, and she heard a suffocated laugh that was too bitter for someone their age.

"Yeah, they don't. They don't care when you nearly die. They don't care when you don't speak to anyone because everyone hates you for no apparent reason. They only care at the funeral, saying how you were such a good person and other shit, and then they just forget you," he spoke back to her. Juliet listened to his words, feeling suddenly very tired, and she sighed.

"I'm tired," she whispered through the door with a hoarse voice, and she could almost feel how Severus wondered what to say to her.

"Go to sleep. I'll handle the professors," he answered back to her, and she heard ruffled noises as he rose behind the door and steps leaving her door. She sighed, rose from the floor and just fell down on her bed.

* * *

Juliet woke up from her restless sleep nine hours later and noticed that she could still make it to dinner if she wanted. She felt groggy and like she had been dragged to Hell and back, but her stomach was empty and she needed to eat something. Juliet sighed as she rose from her bed, quickly brushed her hair in the bathroom and washed her face with cold water.

Everyone could easily see that something was off with her. There were still dark rings around her eyes and she looked paler than normal, and her movements lacked the usual grace. Juliet sighed as she quickly made herself look somewhat acceptable and pulled on gray jeans with her black cardigan. The students were not required to wear school robes during meals, but they mostly did since it was simpler to just either use your uniform or your pyjamas than change clothes all the time.

She walked through the school in her clothes and shivered due to the coldness still raging inside her. It had been a very bad idea to run that morning in all that rain and she had a feeling she would be sick if she didn't get Pepper-Up Potion from Madame Pomfrey.

The Slytherins stared at her as she found Severus from the table and sat next to him, slumping down and burying her head in her hands. She could feel curious looks all around her.

"I take it as you aren't still feeling that well," Severus silently muttered to her and Juliet glanced at him, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"I've felt better," she just sighed tiredly and poured some tea for herself. All the looks she was receiving from various people weren't making her anxiety go away, and she just knew she couldn't eat when everyone else was staring at her.

"I told the teachers you got a terrible headache, one so bad you couldn't even leave your room. They didn't ask any further questions," Severus noted her silently and Juliet smiled. She could hear the unspoken question in his voice.

"Well, it may have something to do with the fact that I get terrible headaches because of certain Gryffindors," she winked and looked around the table, finally putting some food on her plate. A small smirk rested on Severus's lips as he watched the female in front of him.

"Oh, have the Gryffindors already passed the Slytherins on your annoying people list?" he smirked and Juliet shook her head.

"It would take a lot more than nearly getting blind. I don't get why I am in this house, really. I know I have some Slytherin traits, but I would have also made a fine Ravenclaw," Juliet pouted and Severus shook his head.

"Don't you really see it? You are the most cunning, ambitious and slyest person I have ever met. You lie to everyone without even making it noticeable and last night just proved it," Severus said calmly and Juliet suddenly looked away, trying to calm herself down. Severus frowned as he looked at her.

"Is everything fine?" he asked her and Juliet showed him a fake smile. He knew it was a fake one since she looked straight into his eyes with a smile that she used on teachers when they asked her questions she didn't really answer.

"Everything is perfectly fine. Last night was just very," Juliet stopped for a moment, looking for a word, "outré."

Severus nodded his head as he noticed that Juliet most definitely didn't want to tell him what she and the Dark Lord had talked about. Severus tried to think about the positive side of the matter as Juliet poured more tea.

"I know about your associations, and I know that you won't get away from them even if I wished so," she stated calmly and Severus stared intensely into her eyes. "However, it would be hypocrite for me to complain about it. Things have become rather complicated ever since I stepped my foot in Hogwarts." Juliet was speaking in a low voice and Severus carefully listened to it.

"Are you going to tell me why he recognised you?" he asked her sharply and Juliet looked straight into his eyes. There was something sad in her look, but Severus couldn't really point it out.

"There's just simply too much to explain."

Severus just nodded his head as he started to think.


	7. Chapter 6: And It Makes Me Wonder

A/N: So, another chapter. Next chapter will have more Voldemort/Juliet and Juliet/Severus action, so don't worry. I however have more stuff to do and I am quite sure that I'll be posting these chapters either on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays rather than on Mondays. Let's hope I remember to publish things even with these ridiculous schedules.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

A strange, unfamiliar raven flew to Juliet couple of days before Halloween and she looked at the bird confusedly as it screeched and stole her toast. There was a packet on the bird's leg and Juliet removed it gently, aware of the curious looks around her. Juliet watched it glance around the Great Hall, and then she opened the paper on the packet.

She looked at the wooden box without saying anything. Her fingers flew over the lid and opened it, and Juliet looked inside to the most beautiful jewels she had ever seen in her whole life. There was a sad smile on her lips as she lifted a small note from the box and read it.

_These reminded me of you. I wish to meet you soon. Sent a reply with Hades._

There was no question in her mind who had sent her the letter and the jewels. Juliet quickly pulled out a quill and ink with some spare parchment, quickly scrambling through her thoughts in order to find a date where no one would wonder about her disappearance. The next safe time would be over a month and a half away during the Christmas holidays. Juliet bit her lip and wondered if she could disappear the next Saturday on the Hogsmeade trip.

_The jewels are very beautiful and I thank you for your generous gift. I will see you October 29th at the Adder House in Greenwich at 2 o'clock._

The raven took her small note into its beak and it took off before anyone had time to question her about the note she had written. Juliet quickly lit Tom's note in fire with her wand and watched it burn as she listened to the jealous whispering of other Slytherin girls.

Severus leaned a little closer to her and Juliet stared down at the jewellery in shock. The silver jewels were framed with diamonds, and her heart skipped a few beats. She gently raised a perfume bottle out of the box and looked how the lights reflected from it in extraordinary colours. It had clearly been made a very long time ago.

"Those must have cost a fortune," she could hear some jealous girl right next to her and Juliet looked at the box, covering her mouth with her hand and focusing on breathing as calm as she could. She knew exactly what those kinds of gifts meant in pureblood eyes. It was a bridal gift, and she tried her best to breathe deep.

"That is a very extraordinary gift, I must say," she heard a calm voice from behind her and turned quickly around to see how Regulus Black looked at the jewellery box with a smile on his lips. Juliet felt very anxious with the open box and the girls whispering all around her.

"It's not a bridal gift," she said with a faint voice and Regulus raised his eyebrows, clearly questioning her sanity. Juliet bit her lip as she felt how the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were starting to notice the situation in the Slytherin table.

"Are you sure? This is clearly a very valuable present. Not even half of the brides I know get something this valuable," Regulus noted with an unsure voice and Juliet gently placed the perfume bottle back at the box while glancing over the room into the Gryffindor table, hoping she had their bravery.

"At least I hope so," she muttered and lifted a beautiful diadem from the box, carefully examining it. "This looks something like my great-grandfather could have made," she said in wonder. Many of the Slytherins turned their heads to her.

"Are you one of the silversmith Adders?" Iona Greengrass asked Juliet and she smiled silently.

"One of the lasts," she said. Juliet turned to Severus and looked him into the eyes carefully. The man looked back sternly, just shrugged once and then drank some of his coffee. Juliet looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Toffee?" she said with a clear voice and a house-elf apparated right next to her into the empty space between the Slytherin table and the door of the Great Hall.

"Mistress calls Toffee?" the elf asked Juliet and many of the Slytherins stared at it, and for no reason; the elf had on clean wool socks, white bodysuit and on top of it all, the elf had a tea towel wrapped around her body like a toga. Juliet smiled kindly at the elf and the elf answered back with a bright smile. The rest of the table mumbled.

"We will receive a guest at the manor this Saturday. Would you inform the other elves about this?" Juliet asked the elf kindly and the elf nodded her head excitedly.

"Toffee informs the elves about the guest and Toffee will make tea!"

"Thank you," Juliet smiled at the elf and the elf beamed as she apparated away from Hogwarts.

Juliet calmly lifted a cup of tea on her lips as the whole Great Hall stared at the space where the elf had been. She turned her eyes at Severus. The man raised an eyebrow at her and Juliet gently stroked her cup.

"Do I even want to know what this all is about?" Severus asked her and Juliet shrugged silently, swallowing the mouthful.

"Depends." Severus stared at her and Juliet smiled her own sad smile for a moment before leaning in closer to him. "But if you are curious, you could join me in the library."

They both rose from the table quickly and left the Great Hall, Juliet carrying the jewellery box with her. Neither had the first lesson to attend to and both wanted to talk about it a silent space with time. Severus noticed a frown forming on Juliet's face and he wondered what the woman was thinking about.

Juliet chose a table hidden in the depths of the library before setting the box down and opening the lid once again. Severus sat right next to the box as Juliet disappeared between the giant shelves of the library, and he waited for her to come back. After a small moment, Juliet came back with three books and laid them down on the table, and Severus looked at them curiously.

"If you're wondering, only these two are library books," she gestured towards two old books. The third book looked brand new and Juliet opened it carefully, skipping through the pages until she found what she was looking for and then turned the book so Severus could read it.

He was looking at a family tree and he frowned for a moment. Juliet pointed her finger at the bottom of the page, and Severus looked at the two names right next to each other.

_Sophie-Rose Juliet & Henry Isaac_

"This is why they didn't recognise your name," he said silently and Juliet just nodded her head. The woman then pointed her finger to a little left of her and Henry's names, and Severus stared at it.

_Tom Marvolo Riddle_

"He is my only other living relative. He was the one who sent me these jewels," Juliet stated silently and Severus could only stare at it for a moment, trying his best to keep his calmness, but the news was just too shocking. He stared at the family tree in front of him, not even bothering to look at the top of the line. Juliet waited silently.

"You are related to him?" Severus asked the girl silently and Juliet only nodded her head once. She was skipping through the other two books while Severus closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a moment, taking in a deep breath and trying to digest to information.

She pulled the family tree away from him and closed the book silently, putting a complex spell on it and it disappeared with a pop. Severus stared at the process and Juliet noticed it. "The book is from our library. We managed to find a way to let the books come to us when we are away from home," Juliet explained and Severus thought about it for a moment.

"Will it work for other objects also?" he asked and Juliet was silent for a moment.

"I think it would. The objects just need to be spelled beforehand until you can summon them to yourself," Juliet murmured and a frown appeared on her face. She looked down at the book in front of her and then inside the jewellery box, pulling some of the pieces out.

"No wonder the magic in these feels familiar. These are in fact made by one of my ancestors," she said after a moment and Severus looked at the book. There was a drawing of a woman that looked very strict and noble with jewels that were similar to the ones in the box.

"_The jewels of Greenwich are rumoured to be made by an old silversmith family Adder. They first appeared on the 18th century, but disappeared almost a century later and there have been no information of the jewels ever since that has been trustworthy. The jewels carry supposedly very strong spells and enchants that protect their wearer, and many have suggested that the jewels are actually in the possession of the Adder family itself_," Juliet read aloud and smirked in the end.

"You said the magic feels familiar," Severus started, unsure of what to say next. Juliet closed the second book and opened the third one, looking through the table of contents.

"When you work long enough with certain persons, you start to recognise their magical signature. Henry's magic reminds the magic in these," Juliet waved her hand towards the jewels without even lifting her eyes from the book, "but I could swear that Henry would say that they have my magic."

"How do you recognise it?" Severus asked, wanting to learn more about it. Juliet turned the pages into the right part and then lifted her eyes up to Severus's, looking confused.

"The magic in these jewels just feels... right. There is no other way to say it. It just feels like home," Juliet said and Severus thought about it. The woman gently lifted a ring from the box and gave it to Severus.

"Close your eyes and just feel it," she smiled encouragingly and Severus did what she suggested. He closed his eyes and just felt the ring in his hands, felt the magic, but he wasn't sure if he was doing everything right. He could feel Juliet's eyes on his hand and he bit his lip, wondering, what her magic actually felt like. Just when he was about to ask, Juliet spoke.

"Think about my Patronus," Juliet suggested and Severus wondered for a moment how she had guessed his thoughts, but put it aside as he started to think about the woman's Patronus. The wolf was bright in front of his eyes as he looked for the magical signature Juliet left on the wolf.

He felt it. He could feel it and he opened up his eyes in wonder, staring at the girl who was smiling a fragile smile with no sadness in it. Severus was amazed by how beautiful Juliet looked in that moment without the sorrow that seemed to consume her, and he felt like his heart stopped for a moment.

"This is what home feels like for me," Juliet's smile was kind and Severus could not stop staring at the girl. There was something gentle in her voice, something that he felt honoured to hear, and he could not stop wondering if the girl recognised how beautiful she was. Juliet put her hand on top of his and they kept the ring in between their hands, and Severus realised it was the first time she was really touching him. It wasn't just fingers brushing by or a touch that meant nothing, it was a real feeling of belonging together and Juliet finally turned her eyes away.

Severus gave the ring to her and she put it on her right middle finger. She quickly pulled out her earrings and replaced them with the ones in the box, and then she just sat there in silence, looking at Severus confusedly. He felt like she wanted to say something to him, but the moment was broken as someone walked into the library. Juliet quickly avoided her eyes and closed the wooden box, looking at the engravings.

"I think she went here," Severus heard Potter's voice and he gritted his teeth. There was a moment when Juliet had been happy and that idiot had destroyed it. After a moment of silence, Lupin and Potter barged in their corner, and both looked at Juliet quite worriedly.

"She's here!" Lupin called out over his shoulder and after a moment, Lily and Potter arrived. Severus rose from his chair and Juliet lifted her eyes to him, looking rather confused and then nodding her head. Severus left them and she was left in the library with the Marauders.

"We heard from Regulus that you received a bridal gift," Lily started worriedly and Juliet sighed, rubbing her neck and wondering how she could even explain it to them. The Marauders were sometimes too nosy for their own good and Juliet wished rather often that they wouldn't be so worried about her.

"It's not really a bridal gift," she started as they sat around her. She noticed Pettigrew was missing and knew by instinct that they didn't even notice it. Lily looked confused and Sirius looked at the box, then at the earrings and at the finger.

"Yeah, sure. They totally look like a gift for a friend," he snorted and James pushed an elbow at his ribs. Juliet bit her lip silently and thought about something to say to them.

"Who would even send you such a gift if they didn't have a deeper meaning behind it?" Lily asked her and Juliet turned her eyes at her, opened the book in her hands and showing her the same text she had shown Severus just mere minutes earlier. Lily read it and her eyebrows rose the further she read. Remus and James peeked over her shoulder and started to read the same text, and Juliet sat there awkwardly.

"Are those really made by someone in your family?" Lily asked her and Juliet nodded once.

"I think so. My great-grandfather had a similar style in his work," Juliet shrugged and Sirius looked at her, his eyes narrowed and clearly deep in thought. James nudged him and woke him from his dreams.

"What're you thinking about, Padfoot?" the other boy asked and Sirius looked at Juliet.

"I could almost swear that her father made my mother's bridal jewels, but I can't remember why we didn't get our clocks from them," Sirius stated confusedly and Juliet looked at the table. She was afraid to say the words she had been hiding for so long from them.

"My parents have been dead for over fifteen years," Juliet said silently and the whole table sat there shocked. The woman stared at the surface of the table, wishing someone would say something, and in the end, it was Sirius.

"I'm sorry." He looked ashamed and Juliet just shook her head.

"Don't be. I haven't told many about it," she stated calmly and looked at the book under Lily's hands.

"What happened to them?" the only other girl in the group asked and Juliet looked away for a moment, wondering if it would be a good thing to tell them the truth, and then decided against it.

"There was a fire," she just said, not explaining any more of it. Juliet had learned early in life that people didn't want to know the gory details of how someone had died, and simple answers were better than trying to explain how Death Eaters had killed her parents and how she had seen it all.

There was awkward silence for a couple of minutes until Lily rose from the table. "I have to get to the class. Play nice," she glared sharply at Sirius and James, and those two grinned sheepishly as Lily walked out of the library. Juliet was left there with the three Gryffindors and closed both books in front of her, rising from her chair and then walking in between the shelves, looking for their proper places.

The first book had been on the history of jewels, but the second one handled the wizarding history of 1962. Once out of sight, Juliet cast a silencing spell around her and ripped a page out of the book, removing evidence of her parents' deaths. She quickly glanced around herself as she put the page deep into her pocket, pushing the book into its place and then walking back to the others as if nothing had changed.

Juliet grabbed the box from the table and startled the boys. "I'll go drop this off at the dorms," she told them and turned around, quickly disappearing from the library into a hallway. She used secret passageways not many were aware of, and she quickly got to the Slytherin dungeons. There were quite many people in the common room, and she noticed how many stared at the box in her hands.

"Did Sirius find you?" Regulus asked from a chair close to her and Juliet looked at him confusedly for a moment until she remembered that the two of them were actually brothers despite their differences. Sirius was the goofy brother that didn't care about rules, while Regulus was the silent but observant man that seemed to know everything that happened at Hogwarts.

"Cornered me in the library. You should try teaching your brother some tact," Juliet suggested lightly and Regulus barked a laugh.

"That would be quite impossible," he grinned back at Juliet. The girl only then noticed that Severus was sitting quite close to Regulus, but looking very pensive. Her heart skipped a couple of beats as she remembered how the man had looked at her in the library, and she quickly calmed herself down.

"I'll go put these away," Juliet smiled and quickly turned to the girls' dormitories, gently putting the box down on her bed and then walking back to the others, taking a chair for herself close to Regulus and Severus. The two boys looked at her, both in their own ways, and Juliet knew that she couldn't let them get too close. She was playing a very dangerous game, and the cost of losing could be the loss of her own life.

"The match against Gryffindor is in a week. Will you be cheering for us or for them?" Regulus asked Juliet curiously and she sat there for a moment, wondering which she would do. She knew that cheering for Slytherin would make her appear better in the eyes of the Dark Lord, but cheering for Gryffindor would make her friends happy. Juliet sighed and rubbed her neck.

"I think I could just skip the match and avoid the drama," she muttered almost to herself. Regulus and Severus exchanged a glance and both of them snorted at the same time.

"You won't slither away from this one, Adder," Regulus stated seriously. Juliet rolled her eyes.

"Oh really? Who is going to stop me?" she challenged them and Severus smirked.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the whole Slytherin house," he suggested and Juliet sighed dramatically. Quidditch. She didn't understand why it was so important to them.

"Try me. I could easily slither away from anything and you wouldn't even notice," she stated and Regulus lifted a sceptical eyebrow at her. There was a calculating look in his eyes and Juliet waited calmly what the boy was going to suggest.

"How about a little bet, then? If you don't manage to snitch Dumbledore's yellow-striped hat before Saturday, you'll become our personal mascot for the team," Regulus suggested and Juliet thought about it for a moment. A sneaky smile rose on her lips.

"It's a deal," she said and gave her hand to Regulus. They shook hands, looking each other dead in the eye. "But if I win, you will have to go to the Great Hall during the breakfast with said hat on your head," she said innocently to Regulus, and the boy smiled.

"Naturally."

* * *

Juliet had planned the stunt the entire Thursday, not focusing that much on her lessons. The teachers had noticed the confident smirk on her face and it worried them, and during the dinner the same evening, she put her plan into effect.

She had managed to get Sirius and James attend to the plan, to cause havoc after the dinner. She hadn't explained them what it all was about, but nevertheless, the two Marauders had joined her plans. All she had to say was that she needed a diversion and the two had been listening to her. Juliet had noted that those two were the ones to turn the whole Hogwarts upside down if it meant a little fun for them.

Therefore, during the dinner Juliet observed the Headmaster carefully and looked for the perfect moment to start her act. She knew that it could be her only chance to accomplish the task, and she knew that losing it would mean possibly very humiliating acts on her part. She had no idea what Regulus and Severus were planning on, but the whole Quidditch team was keeping a sharp eye on her and clearly planning on something. She took in a deep breath, pulled a small vessel out of her bag and prayed for the plan to work.

A high-pitched shriek pierced the Great Hall and Juliet sat on her place, still as a statue. The snake slithered on the table, came to Juliet and wrapped itself around her neck. Juliet sat on her place, scanning worriedly through the Great Hall as many Slytherins backed up from her, and as Severus and the Quidditch team looked worriedly into her direction.

"Keep still, Miss Adder," Slughorn walked towards them with Bagnold, who had his wand pointed at the snake wrapped around her neck. It hissed and the teachers stopped further. Juliet listened to the chaos in the Great Hall and noticed how the Headmaster was walking towards her.

"There is no need to worry, Miss Adder. We'll get that snake off very soon," Slughorn spoke encouragingly, but Juliet knew that she snake wouldn't be taken off that easily. She had personally asked it to stay around her neck and to hiss at everyone who tried to even point a wand towards it, and the snake had promised to do so after a couple of mice had been promised.

"Could you hurry, please?" Juliet asked with a high tone she had perfected that afternoon in her own room. Bagnold pointed a wand at the snake and it hissed angrily at the man, and he lowered his wand uncertain what to do.

"Oh my," Slughorn said anxiously and Juliet slowly lifted her hands around the snake. It slithered around her right arm and looked at the girl.

_"Can I have the mice now?" _it asked her and Juliet faked to be very worried, but hissed back so silently no-one could hear her.

_"In a moment."_

The snake hissed at her, clearly frustrated and wanting those mice. The Professors looked worriedly at it as Juliet slowly pulled a wand out of her pocket, watching as the Headmaster stayed a while further. Juliet closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and changed some carrots into mice.

The snake quickly slithered away from her, chasing the mice right out of the Great Hall as everyone stared behind it. The Headmaster walked to Juliet and his twinkling eyes didn't twinkle as much as they normally did.

"Miss Adder, please join me. We need to have a discussion," Dumbledore said gently and Juliet nodded her head once, feeling relieved that she had managed to attract the Headmaster's attraction. Juliet rose slowly, trying her best to look like she didn't trust her own legs, and Slughorn hurried to hold her arm so that she could lean on him.

The journey to the Headmaster's office was extremely silent, and Slughorn left them at the staircase. Juliet followed Dumbledore into his office and sat down on a chair in front of his desk, waiting for the old man to speak. She looked at him, looking shaken and the Headmaster's eyes twinkled comfortingly for her.

"Would you care for a lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked her and she shook her head, looking at him with worrying eyes. The man popped one into his own mouth and Juliet sat there, biting her lip and trying to look very shaken and miserable.

"I assure you, Miss Adder, that we will find the person who released the snake," Dumbledore promised with a smile and Juliet had to bite her tongue for she would have smirked if the situation didn't require seriousness.

"I must ask you who -"

The Headmaster's question was cancelled as a huge explosion ravished the castle. Juliet yelped and grabbed the sides of her chair, wondering what Sirius and James had done. The Headmaster quickly looked at Juliet, then at the door, and made his decision.

"I will send someone here to escort you back to the Slytherin dormitories," Dumbledore promised her and Juliet nodded her head, but the man had already turned and hurried out of the office, closing the door behind him. As soon as the door closed, Juliet jumped on her feet, pulled a wand out of her pocket, and pointed it into the air.

"_Accio_ yellow-striped hat!" she breathed and the hat flew to her from Dumbledore's chambers. Juliet quickly shrunk it, stuffed it into her pocket and sat down on her chair, pretending as if nothing had happened. All of the paintings in the Headmaster's office had run away to find out what had exploded, so there were no witnesses for her act. Juliet smirked victoriously before returning a curious and shaken at the same time.

In a couple of minutes, panting Slughorn came into the office. "Come on Miss Adder, we'll be going to the Slytherin dormitories," he said at the young woman encouragingly and she just nodded her head, rising from her chair.

"What happened?" she asked Slughorn, failing to cover her curiousness. Slughorn smiled at it, and Juliet guessed that he thought that she was feeling already better.

"Someone managed to explode some fireworks in the Charms corridor. No-one got hurt, but there is quite a mess in there," Slughorn explained and Juliet just nodded weakly her head. The Professor looked like he was thinking about something.

"Will you be able to go alone to the common room? Albus asked me to help cleaning the mess up when I was done with you," Slughorn looked at her and she nodded her head. The Professor smiled and nodded his head, turned back from where they were coming from and Juliet smirked as he watched of his retrieving back.

She nearly sprinted at the common room, entering it confidently and looking at the worried faces. Severus, Regulus and the Quidditch team were looking at her suspiciously until she pulled the bloody hat out of her pocket, enlarging it back to its proper size and smiling innocently at them.

"I think Saturday would be a good day to wear that."


	8. Chapter 7: Hope Is Not The End

A/N: This was a very hard chapter to write for me. Let's hope the next one will be easier.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

The Slytherins were buzzing with excitement on Saturday morning. First the professors thought it was because of the trip to Hogsmeade, but they realised it was because of something else. Juliet Adder and Severus Snape seemed to be in the centre of the storm, and many younger students seemed to admire them. The thing was, no teacher had any idea what actually was going on.

Juliet Adder, however, was enjoying every moment of it.

"I still can't believe that you persuaded Potter and Black to do the work for you," Severus muttered under his breath to Juliet, looking generally quite excited and the girl beamed back at him.

"All it really took was to mention havoc and they jumped right in," she answered him and turned her head at the door. Juliet had managed to make Regulus come to the Great Hall after 9 o'clock, wearing Professor Dumbledore's hat, and the clock was ticking closer and closer to the hour. Every Slytherin knew about the bet Regulus had lost with Juliet, and every Slytherin was anxious to see how Professor Dumbledore would react to it.

"Do you think you'll get into trouble for this?" Severus asked the woman, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"They have no evidence against me," she stated innocently.

"I still don't get that snake, though. How did you plan that trick?" he asked her for the thousandth time. Juliet only shook her head with a small smile on her lips. She knew it was not smart to tell people she was a parselmouth, so she stayed silent about it around the people who she couldn't trust. And right now, she didn't know if she could trust Severus Snape seeing that he had some sort feelings towards her.

More importantly, she didn't know if she could trust herself.

"You'll never know," Juliet teased and Severus pouted. The Slytherin table silenced and stared at the door of the Great Hall. The clock had struck nine in the morning and everyone in the table was anticipating for Regulus to come.

"Here he comes!" a second-year girl shrieked and the other houses turned towards the door. Regulus was standing there, the hat on top of his head, looking extremely ridiculous.

The Gryffindor and Slytherin tables burst into laughter. Juliet smirked towards Severus who was laughing openly. "Go on, get your glory," the man provoked her and Juliet smirked back. She rose on the long bench and the Slytherins cheered more wildly. Juliet bowed towards Regulus and enjoyed the agitated look on the boy's face as he walked towards the head table.

"Your hat, sir," Regulus bowed for Dumbledore and gave the hat back to the dumbfounded Headmaster whose eyes darted between Regulus and Juliet. He clearly didn't understand the situation quite yet, and two Slytherin Quidditch team members, Morgan and Avery, helped her back on the bench. Juliet looked quite pleased of the reactions she had gathered from all the people in the Great Hall.

"Mr Black, how do you have my hat?" Dumbledore asked Regulus curiously and the boy shook his head.

"I'm a Slytherin, sir. We never kiss and tell," he simply answered and the Slytherins cheered for his comment. Dumbledore silenced the table with one stern look.

"I must give you detention and cancel your Hogsmeade trip. However, I am quite curious of Miss Adder's part," Dumbledore's eyes bore into Juliet's direction and the girl's face practically screamed innocence. Severus snickered as he saw the look.

"Oh, she was my muse," Regulus stated lightly and blew a kiss to her direction. Juliet rolled her eyes. Another boy having a crush on her was nothing new. The Gryffindors laughed at it and most of the Slytherins smirked at the comment, knowing the true situation. Headmaster Dumbledore however didn't, and his eyes darted between Juliet and Regulus.

In the end, the Headmaster only nodded his head once and let Regulus go to his own table. The boy sat down next to Juliet, looking directly into her eyes and raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I do hope I did everything by your standards," Regulus stated calmly and Juliet smiled. She placed a small kiss on his cheek and the boy blushed into deep crimson.

"You did very well," she answered. Juliet didn't notice it, but Severus looked at her direction for a moment with pain in his eyes, then lowered them back at the table and hoped to forget what he had just seen. He had been hoping that she would stay as his friend, and he felt extremely jealous of the small kiss the other boy had received on his cheek. Juliet turned her eyes towards Severus.

"Will you come to Hogsmeade with me? I have never been there before," the girl asked from Severus and he raised his eyes warily, nodding his head only once. Juliet smiled a bright smile at him, and he noticed that there was only a hint of sadness in it. And for that one small moment, Severus could see that Juliet really was glad about it.

Juliet, however, was already asking him another question.

"Do you think the teachers will mind if we sneak out from the Hogsmeade trip?" she asked with a low voice and Severus only smiled faintly.

"I can't afford to do so, I'm afraid. Why would you sneak out?" Severus asked her and the girl looked around them, noticed everyone else was speaking with someone else and that no one was listening to them before she turned back to Severus.

"I have an errand to run at home," she answered cryptically, and realisation hit Severus. Juliet was going to meet the Dark Lord that day. That was what she had informed the house-elf about.

"Are you out of your mind? They could expel you for that!" he hissed and Juliet bit her lip.

"It's something I need to do, Severus. I only need to be there for an hour or two and then I'll be back," she tried to reason him and he looked at her disapprovingly.

"An hour with him might cost your life," he said to her and she lowered her head, swallowing.

"I know," she answered so silently Severus had trouble hearing. He looked at the serious woman confusedly, and finally it hit him. Juliet actually knew how dangerous it all was. She actually knew the rules for the game she was playing, and for him it looked like she knew how to break those rules without suffering the consequences.

Juliet pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag and scribbled something on it. She closed Severus's fingers around it and looked him seriously before speaking in a hushed tone.

"Remember the address. If I don't come back by five, I want you to show the address to the professors and tell them what's happening in there," she told him and Severus looked at the young woman. He could see the fear in her eyes, but he could also see how brave she was. There was a certain glow in her that told him that she wasn't going to give up.

Severus peeked at the address written in her clean handwriting. _The Adder House, Greenwich, England_. He nodded his head once and gave the paper back to her, and she hid it in her pocket. Severus noticed how the name seemed to pop out every now and then when he was close to her. He also remembered how some people had been talking about Greenwich earlier, but he couldn't remember what it had been about. He was getting curious of the mystery that was starting to take a form around him.

The breakfast onwards was normal chatting with their housemates and listening to their praise. They seemed to think Juliet as a genius, but she certainly didn't think herself as one in Severus's eyes. The young woman clearly kept her feet on the ground, and Severus admired the way she carried herself effortlessly in the hallways.

"Do they have a bookshop in Hogsmeade?" she suddenly asked from him after a moment of silence. Severus looked at her feeling surprised.

"You can buy some books from Scrivenshaft's," Severus answered her and Juliet frowned.

"I need to go to Diagon Alley during the Christmas holiday apparently. I just wished to buy a copy of _The Tales of Beetle the Bard_," Juliet sighed and idly looked out of the window. They were on the fourth floor, just passing time with wandering around the school and talking about matters that crossed their minds.

"Why would you want to buy a children's book?" he asked her, feeling confused. Juliet smiled warmly at him and stopped in front of a big window that looked straight into the Black Lake.

"I'm interested in the tale of the three brothers," she stated lightly and Severus frowned.

"Please tell me you aren't looking for the Deathly Hallows," he muttered and Juliet smiled and shook her head. There was an eerie look on her face as she stared at the lake.

"I'm not really interested in the elder wand or the invisibility cloak. I'm more interested in the Resurrection stone," she said silently and Severus frowned. There was a sad look in her eyes as she stared at the view and he knew where it came from.

"You'd speak with your parents, wouldn't you?" he gently asked her and Juliet nodded her head. She looked at him as if hoping to find some strength from his eyes and decided to answer.

"It is sentimental and idiotic to want to own the stone. I still want to, because my memories of them are fading every single day, and I need something to hold on," she sighed and rubbed her temples. Severus stepped a little closer to her and took her hand into his own. He squeezed it gently and Juliet looked into his eyes.

"You just want to know what they really were like," he said gently and Juliet nodded her head, leaning it against his chest. Severus could feel his heart beating faster under her head and he hoped she couldn't hear it.

He could smell the feint odour of her perfume, the smell of the soap on her skin and her own scent, lingering underneath it all. He could feel how the rich scent filled with the raspberry in her hair made him feel dizzy and he wasn't sure how long he could take it.

"I'm so glad I met you," she said silently, but with a voice full of peace. Severus rubbed her back with his long fingers a couple of times and then let go of her, stepping back.

"Do you think we should go get our cloaks?" Severus asked her after an uncertain moment and Juliet nodded her head with a worry-free smile on her lips. She walked right next to him towards the dungeons, and for a moment, Severus could feel that the sadness in her wasn't there.

* * *

Hogsmeade was wonderful in Juliet's opinion. Severus walked next to her in the small village as they stepped into every store and he felt happy to see her smile in such a way. In the end, they went to The Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer to wait for the perfect time for her to sneak out, and they sat in a corner booth where they could see everyone.

"I can't understand why I've never been here before," Juliet noted as she watched all the other students in the bar. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the Hogsmeade trip and no one looked at him or her twice. "This whole village is so much more magical than Diagon Alley," she wondered aloud and looked at Severus curiously.

"There's a chapter of Hogsmeade in _Hogwarts, A History_. Apparently the founders' magic lingers here and influences on the place," Severus explained to her and Juliet nodded her head. She had bought the book along with The Tales of Beetle the Bard from Scrivenshaft's and now carried them in her bag.

"I wonder if muggles would notice the scent of magic in here," Juliet wondered and Severus couldn't help but smile. The girl sometimes used the most curious ways to say things and this was one of them.

"I didn't know magic had a scent," he smirked and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"It does have. I guess you wouldn't notice it, but if you live long enough in a muggle village, you start to just smell magic," she stated and Severus was silent for a moment. He had never told her about his home.

"I actually live in Cokeworth," he said silently and Juliet frowned. The girl looked at him confusedly.

"Why would you live in such a place?" she asked him confusedly and Severus looked down on his butterbeer.

"My mother is a witch. My father was a muggle," he said silently and he could feel the woman's eyes on his face. He waited for the moment when she would pull her wand and hex him for not telling it her earlier, but the moment never arrived. Severus slowly lifted her eyes at Juliet, who was looking straight into his eyes. It made him feel a bit bothered, to be honest.

"All this time I have talked about my dead parents and I didn't even know you didn't have a father anymore," she muttered and bit her lip for a moment.

"It's okay. My father wasn't a very nice person and he didn't like much anything," Severus said and looked over the bar. The Marauders had just entered and Potter was confidently walking towards Lily. He felt a twist in his heart as he turned his eyes back to Juliet.

"How about your mother?"

"She is a nice enough person," Severus felt uncomfortable. Juliet looked worriedly at him and frowned, clearly thinking about his words. She turned her eyes towards the bar and noticed the clock on the wall, stating it was already half past one.

"I think I should get going. I have a feeling that he is going to be early," Juliet said silently and Severus nodded his head.

"I'll see you in the common room," he said and Juliet nodded her head. The young woman rose from the table, walked through the bar for the door carrying her books with her and disappeared on an alley, looked around her and apparated away from Hogsmeade into the front gate of Adder House.

The trees covered the view from the gate, but Juliet smiled silently as she stood there for a moment. She could almost picture the brown and yellow bricks, see the large windows in front of the house and look at the snakes carved into the front door. She hadn't realised it earlier, but she did miss her home in England. She silently opened the front gate and walked the path towards the front door.

The old oaks formed a pathway towards the mansion that had been standing there for almost 300 years. Juliet could feel the old magic and it felt just like home. A sad smile rose on her lips as she walked up the stairs towards the front door, because she could still remember the bodies in the great room. The elves probably would serve the tea in the western parlour since even they seemed to avoid the room where Juliet had seen her parents die.

She pressed her hand on the door and the lock opened. After the incident, Henry had made the wards stronger than they possibly were at Hogwarts, and only she or Henry could open the doors to the house. Sure, their elves could apparate in and out of the house, but the idea was that no one got in or no one got out.

"Mistress Juliet is back!" Toffee squeaked in the front room and Juliet smiled as she closed the door behind her. The elf bowed to her and the other elves came into the front room. Juliet squatted on the floor and the elves came to her smiling form.

Blinks awkwardly hugged her mistress and Juliet patted the elf's small back. "I'm glad to be back home," she smiled at them all and took Pepper's hand. The elf seemed to beam and Juliet laughed gently at the devastated looks on Toffee's, Blinks's and Snowy's faces.

"When Mistress's guest arrives?" Blinks asked her and blinked her huge eyes a couple of times.

"He'll come in half an hour," Juliet told the elves and walked with them to the kitchen. They immediately started to prepare food for the tea and Juliet absentmindedly watched them work. The four elves talked to each other and to Juliet, and she answered their questions as well as she could. They seemed to be excited about the fact that she was planning to spend the Christmas holiday at the mansion.

She knew Henry would probably be extremely worried for her, and she hoped everything would go smoothly when she met Tom. She knew his brother would wait for her message anxiously in a small cottage on the coast of Scotland until she would send her Patronus to him, and there was nothing she could really do to lessen their anxiety. All she could do was to wait.

Juliet walked into the western parlour and watched at the large yard out of the big windows. She hoped she could walk with Henry in the orchard like she had done two months earlier, but Henry was away from there and she had to do it all alone.

A thestral landed on the front garden and Juliet looked at it for a couple of moments as it walked in there. Then, a person came closer to it and patted it, and Juliet was pulled out of her thoughts. Her cousin was there.

Juliet quickly went to open the front door and walked into the garden still wearing her school robes and her cloak. She walked towards the thestral and the man and stopped a few feet away from those two. The thestral recognised her and came to her, nudged her hand and the man turned towards her.

"Juliet," Tom Riddle nodded his head and acknowledged her. Juliet patted the thestral and looked at her cousin.

"Tom," she answered silently and looked him straight into the eye. They both stared at each other for a moment until they turned their eyes back at the thestral.

"I didn't believe you would ask me to come here of all places," the man stated calmly and Juliet felt a wrench in her gut, but did not let it show.

"You already were aware of this place. It is much safer for me to bring you here than to reveal my any other homes," Juliet said aloud and Tom turned his eyes at the young girl, raising an eyebrow at her.

"You certainly are much smarter than you let me understand the last time we met," he remarked and Juliet smiled faintly at the comment. She looked at the Dark Lord in front of her and absentmindedly wondered if she would make it out alive.

"I am a Slytherin after all," she said calmly and the man smirked.

"In more than one sense, that is," he said and Juliet smirked back. They both were aware of their heritage, but Juliet did not know if he knew that she was actually related to Salazar Slytherin twice.

"I think the elves have already prepared the tea," she said after a moment and Tom nodded his head. Juliet walked next to him to the door and opened it for him, letting him in in front of her and then closing the door behind her. Tom was clearly looking around himself in the front room and studying the old paintings on the walls.

"Is your brother here?" Tom asked her politely and Juliet shook her head. The man looked at her curiously and Juliet gently whisked a curl behind her ear, letting him see the jewels on her. She noticed the pleased look flashing in his eyes as she did so.

"My brother decided that he would not come here because he would have probably hexed you," Juliet replied truthfully and the man in front of her looked at her amusedly. Juliet led her to the western parlour, where the elves had already served the tea. They both sat down and Juliet poured tea for him, giving him his cup with surprisingly steady hands.

"I don't think he could do so, my dear," Tom answered her and Juliet shook her head, laughing at the remark.

"Have you ever had to fight against an angry alpha wolf? Trust me; you do not want to do so. It took me almost three hours of persuading him to stop a couple of guys getting their eyes ripped off because they hurt me," Juliet stated lightly and Tom raised his eyebrows. He sipped a bit of his tea and thought about it for a moment.

"An alpha wolf? I did hear your bother was an animagus, but I didn't know he was a wolf," Tom noted and Juliet leaned back on her chair, calming down a bit. If she could keep him away from the dangerous matters, it would be easier for her to make sure she wasn't killed during their small meeting.

"I think the wolf rather fits him. Gryffindor or not, he certainly is cunning and extremely clever," Juliet answered and Tom smiled.

"I still wonder how someone who has inherited Slytherin blood could end up in Gryffindor," he confessed and Juliet sipped her tea.

"It probably comes from my grandmother's side," Juliet shrugged and Tom smiled at the remark.

"So, do you enjoy Hogwarts? I heard a rumour that you went to Durmstrang," Tom noted lightly and Juliet looked down on her lap. She had a feeling that he would try to use Legilimency on her and she did not really understand why.

"I did attend Durmstrang for three years. They taught me quite well to understand the Dark Arts, but my magic has always been more suited for creating and fixing things," Juliet shrugged uncomfortably. She bit her lip as she looked at the man sitting in front of her, drinking tea and wondered if it would be safe for her to talk about the Dark Arts.

"I guess you are a clocksmith like your father, then," he murmured and Juliet nodded her head, having a bad feeling about it. Tom looked at her calculatingly and she did not want to just sit there under his eyes. She wanted to know what she was thinking about, and at the same time, she was scared that she would find it out sooner than she wanted.

"Do you know how to make time-turners?" the man asked from her and Juliet stared him straight into the eye.

"Yes."

"Would you make one for me?"

"No."

There was a dangerous flash in his eyes as she stated her answer. Juliet sat on her chair, frozen to her position and waited for him to curse her, and he slowly raised his wand.

"And why, pray tell, wouldn't you?" his tone was extremely low and Juliet stared straight at him, feeling her heart beat faster. She could see that he would kill her if her answer was not good enough in his opinion, but she was not afraid of death. She was afraid of the pain he would very likely cause her before he would kill her.

"Because time is very delicate. You can't change it without consequences," Juliet stated seriously and the man stared at her. There was an unhappy expression in his eyes as he raised his wand even higher, pointing it straight to her chest.

"And what are those consequences?" his tone was now ice cold. Juliet stared at the eyes of death and for a moment felt certain peace inside her.

"If one doesn't let the scene unfold the way it is known, there will never be the situation when one decided to travel back in time and then there will be always two versions of the same person," she said silently and the man narrowed his eyes. He was clearly thinking about it all, and in the end, he lowered his wand, looking at the young woman in front of him.

"Then how would you avoid these changes?" he asked her, and Juliet looked down at her.

"I can't tell you," she stated so silently even she had trouble hearing it. She could feel the wave of rage rising from her cousin. "Henry made an Unbreakable Vow with me to never tell anyone about the secrecies of time travelling. I can build a time-turner and I can tell the rules, but I shall never tell anyone how to break these rules or how to make a time-turner."

She could feel how disappointed the man was in the information she had just given him. She could feel how angry he was that he did not get the answers he wanted to have, and Juliet looked at him. The harsh look on his face should have made her feel threatened, but instead she sat there and thought about all the things she had heard about him. In the future, this man had held the wizarding world in his fingers and tried to kill a boy for some reason. In the future, this man came back from dead, and this man chased the elder wand.

"You know something about my future, don't you?" he asked her with a silent voice and Juliet blinked confusedly, being pulled back into the situation. There was no denying it: he had already seen the distant look in her eyes and he waited for her answer with a mask on his face.

"I do," she sighed tiredly and rubbed her neck, looking for a way out of the situation. The man stared at her as if trying to understand the secrets she had to keep inside of her because they were too dangerous to tell anyone else.

"And you can't tell me about the future?" he asked her and Juliet shook her head.

"If I tell you the future, I'll end up changing it. I can't do it," she said tiredly. The man stared at her for a couple of moments and then nodded his head, rising from his chair.

"I want to meet you again, but this time I also want to see your brother," he stated silently and Juliet nodded her head. She led him to the door and opened it for him, waiting inside as he stepped out and turned to look at her.

"I'll come see you during the Christmas holidays," the man stated silently and apparated away. Juliet closed the door before sliding down on the floor, leaning her back on the solid wood. The elves came to her from the kitchen and they all seemed very concerned.

"Is Mistress fine?" Toffee asked her with a very worried look on her face and the elves just gathered around her, wrapping their small arms around her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she told them and felt the tears burning in her eyes. She was scared to death, she knew that the situation could have gotten a lot worse, but right now, all she just wanted to have was someone to hug her, someone to hold her and tell her it would all get better.

She hugged the elves and hoped she could hug her parents or Henry. In the end, she had to take her wand out and to clear her mind in search of a good memory.

"_Expecto Patronum_," she whispered and the wolf burst out of her wand. "He has left. I'll leave for Hogwarts in a moment," she told the wolf with a tired voice and the wolf ran through the wall, out of the house where Juliet had lived the first two years of her life.

The good memories faded away and Juliet felt cold inside. "Could someone apparate me to the gates of Hogwarts?" she asked from the elves and they looked at each other until Pepper gave his hand to her. The young woman took and she felt the familiar pressure of apparation around her. After a moment, they stood at the front gates of Hogwarts, and some younger students were staring at Juliet.

"Mistress," the elf bowed and disapparated from the scene. Juliet wrapped her cloak better around herself and kept still hold of her wand, walking through the gates and towards the ancient castle that stood in the large grounds. She could hear the whisperings of younger students behind her, but she paid no attention to it. She just needed to get to the Slytherin dormitories, and everything would be fine.

That was what she kept repeating inside her own head.


	9. Chapter 8: Give Up The Fight Here

A/N: DUN DUN DUU. Another turn of the events. I hope I'll still be able to gather all the things along the way, since I seem to collect plot bunnies. I have no idea when the next part is coming seeing as I have five exams, but let's hope I find some time to write.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Juliet arrived in the Slytherin common room and slumped down on a comfortable chair next to Severus. The man raised his eyes at the young woman, who looked at him.

"How did the meeting go?" he asked her with an agitated voice, and Juliet brushed some curls behind her ear, staring at the fire.

"He didn't kill me, we didn't hex each other and no-one got hurt. I think it went quite well," she stated after a moment. Severus noticed that not everything was fine in her, but he did not dare to ask what it was about. He knew that it took a lot to shake Juliet, and he did not even dare to dream what the Dark Lord had done to her.

"I could really use some firewhiskey now," Juliet muttered silently and sighed tiredly while letting her head drop back, staring at the low ceiling of the room.

"I heard firewhiskey!" Regulus piped in and sat down on the sofa, staring at the two older students. Severus just snorted and turned his eyes at Juliet, who looked around her calculatingly. The younger students were roaming around the school and Hogsmeade and there were only sixth and seventh year students in the common room.

"How about we play a game of 'never have I ever'?" she suggested and many Slytherins gathered around them. Juliet sat up straight and looked around the room.

"The rules are quite simple: everyone has ten shots and one of us states something that they have never done. If you have done that something, you drink one shot. If no one drinks a shot, the person who said the fact must drink. If only one person drinks, they have to explain why they are drinking," Juliet told the rules to them and Severus smirked to himself. Many of the Slytherins did not know much about him nor Juliet, and he had a feeling that they would be playing the game until the very end.

"Okay everyone, go get your drinks!" Regulus told them all excitedly and Juliet rose silently, walking to her room. Henry may not approve it, but she had found that sometimes firewhiskey helped her to lose control and to relax after very stressful situations. She did know it was not the smartest thing to do, especially around other people, but she really needed the fun. Therefore, she came back to the common room with two bottles of firewhiskey, transfigured shot glasses out of some glass pearls she had gotten at the age of six and poured enough firewhiskey for her and Severus. The man looked at her for a moment and then relaxed against the couch as Juliet put the bottles down between their legs.

"Everyone have their drinks?" Regulus asked them and there was approving muttering around the circle of Slytherins. "Good. I think that Miss Adder shall state the first fact and start the game."

Juliet thought about her words only for a moment. "Never have I ever had a boyfriend," she stated with a clear voice and a couple of girls drowned their first shot glasses. About 15 Slytherins in total were attending to the game and Juliet turned to look at Severus, who had a calculating look on his face.

"Never have I ever slept in class," he stated and over half of the Slytherins drowned a drink. Juliet smirked at it and turned to Avery, who was sitting close to them.

"Never have I ever flirted with a Professor," he said with a cheerful voice and two girls drowned their drinks, smiling sheepishly at the others. Juliet was surprised by all of the things that she was starting to learn.

"Never have I ever drunk underage," Mulciber said and some of the sixth year students cursed. Severus and Regulus took their first shots and Juliet grinned as almost everyone turned their eyes on her. She just waited for Regulus's statement. The boy looked straight at her and grinned.

"Never have I ever stolen anything from Dumbledore."

Surprisingly she was not the only one to drink. Avery, Mulciber, Wilkes, Rosier and Clara Burke drank with her and Juliet enjoyed the burning sensation of firewhiskey inside her.

"Never have I ever blackmailed someone."

"Never have I ever kissed an animal."

"Never have I ever flirted with someone when I already dated with someone."

Phoena Greengrass was the first to go, and Evan Rosier, Thaddeus Tripe, Clara Burke, Avery, Mulciber and Wilkes were quick to follow. Eleanor Max and Alice Gamp fell out after Severus stated that he had never kissed a person of the same sex. Melanie Rowle fell after Alexandra Lestrange's statement that she had never skinny dipped in the Black Lake. Alexandra Lestrange fell after Regulus stated that he had never dated a Hufflepuff. There were only Juliet, Severus and Regulus left after the loss of Walden Macnair. Severus and Regulus had two drinks left while Juliet was feeling rather comfortable with her three drinks. Everyone in the common room was already quite drunk and paying attention to the three participants left.

"Never have I ever played Quidditch," Juliet laughed, feeling utterly relaxed and watched as Severus and Regulus drowned drinks. She waited for Severus's words as the man looked at both of them calculatingly before deciding.

"Never have I ever read Peter Pan," he smirked drunkenly at Juliet, who rolled her eyes and drowned a drink.

"It's a muggle book my brother used to read me," she said calmly. Regulus looked like he was pondering on something.

"Never have I ever been homeschooled," the boy said and Juliet drowned another drink. All of them had only one drink left. Juliet was looking at both of the boys, and decided that she could let Severus win this one.

"Never have I ever made out in the halls," she stated cheekily and Regulus drank his last shot.

"Well, I'm out," he slurred and lay down on the sofa, as Severus grinned at Juliet, who was looking at the man next to her innocently.

"Never have I ever sneaked off from a Hogsmeade trip," he told her and Juliet took her last shot, holding it in her hands and then toasted for Severus before drowning it in one gulp. She savoured the warmth inside her for a moment before turning to everyone else in the common room.

"I kind of decided to go home today from the trip," she told and laughed at it, thinking about what had happened. "Oh fuck, Henry's going to kill me," she could not stop laughing and fell down into Severus's lap. The man gave her the firewhiskey bottle from the floor and the other Slytherins took their drinks as they anticipated on hearing the story behind her disappearance.

Juliet drank straight from the bottle and then gave it to Severus who repeated the action. "The guy who gave me the jewels a couple of days ago wanted to meet me, and I just decided that what the hell, let's meet him. Therefore, I invite him to our house and he shows up, being a huge git and whatever. It's really comical, when you think about it; one moment this guy is sending me very old jewels and the next he is on the verge of hexing me," Juliet giggled at the end. Severus frowned and looked at her.

"I thought you said it went well?" he sounded extremely pissed off and drunk and Juliet smiled at seeing his face over her own body in his lap. She felt oddly detached from her body.

"It did, didn't it? I'm not dead or anything," she said and snuggled comfortably closer to him. She closed her eyes just for a moment.

"Miss Adder, what exactly are you doing?" Slughorn asked with a hard tone and Juliet grabbed a hold of the sofa so she would not fall over. She looked around her feeling very confused until she noticed that only she and Severus were in the common room. The others had cleaned all the marks of their night away previously and it seemed like Slughorn did not realise that Severus was also highly intoxicated.

"I'm sorry sir, I fell asleep," she apologised, not commenting on the fact that she was still quite drunk.

"I will have to inform your brother about this. I will have a discussion with you in the morning. Into the bed, now!" Slughorn ordered and Severus rose from the sofa. Juliet stood in the middle of the floor as she looked at Slughorn's retrieving back.

"I think you just got into serious trouble," Severus said silently and Juliet sighed.

"Not really. I think he'll be more disappointed," she said silently and looked at Severus.

"I'll get you Sober-Up in the morning," she muttered and turned for her own bedroom, but Severus grabbed her hand and looked at her with a weird look in his eyes. They stared at each other for a very long moment and Juliet could feel her heart beating faster.

"This was a fun night," the man smiled at her and Juliet answered the smile. She rose to her toes and kissed Severus's cheek quickly before rushing into her own room, grabbing a half full bottle with her and decided that she could just leave it wait in her trunk for another time.

If Henry wouldn't pour it all down the drain, that was it.

Juliet threw herself on the bed and laid there for a couple of moments just staring at the roof. She wished she could just forget everything for a moment, that she could relax without getting extremely drunk before it and that she did not need to play the game that risked her own life. She wished she and Henry did not need to fight against their own family, that her parents were still alive, that she had never seen them dying.

For the second time that day, Juliet fell into sleep.

* * *

The morning certainly was not any better for her. In fact, she felt worse than the day earlier, now because of getting herself and Severus into trouble and making her brother disappointed. She drank some Sober-Up, went to the bathroom for a quick shower and then changed into clean clothes, feeling miserable and stressed out. She did not feel like running at all. Juliet decided it was for the best to remove the jewels she had kept on her for the past days and put them back into their box.

Severus was already waiting in the common room and Juliet gave him the rest of the Sober-Up. Only then did she glance at the clock on the wall and realise it was only seven in the morning. She was not quite sure of exactly what had happened during the night, but she remembered the main points of the story.

Severus was extremely silent as they sat there. "He'll probably want to know why you got drunk," he said after a moment, and Juliet looked at him. She felt his eyes on her own and knew that he would be there, and she felt guilty about it all.

"I'm sorry I passed out in your lap," Juliet muttered silently. Severus looked at her for a moment as if she was completely mental.

"It's okay. I should have carried you to bed before Slughorn came in," Severus answered simply and Juliet smiled faintly. They looked at each other for a moment and grinned.

"Didn't he catch anyone else?" she was getting curious and Severus shook his head.

"No. The others were smart enough to clean the common room and hide their selves in the dorms. We were the only one out after curfew when he came in to check the common room," Severus explained and Juliet just shook her head.

"Well, at least you didn't get into big trouble like I did," she felt a bit more positive and Severus smiled.

"I think that you won't get any punishment from this if they're asking family members here. It usually suggests that the authority goes away from the school," Severus said absentmindedly as he still was looking at Juliet with a look in his eyes that she could not completely recognise.

They stared at each other for a moment until Juliet sighed and lay against the sofa, wondering absentmindedly if something had happened between the two of them the previous night. She could not point out anything too sexual from her shabby memory, and she just hoped that her memories were not failing her.

"This may not have been my smartest idea," she stated after a while and Severus turned his eyes at the young woman next to her, frowning at the fireplace.

"How come?" he almost laughed at the frown.

"Obviously because Slughorn isn't going to trust me for the rest of my time here, I can't remember everything that happened last night and I may have said something I would very much liked to keep a secret." There was a serious pause for almost half a minute. "And Henry is going to be extremely pissed off, that's for granted."

"He doesn't really seem like that kind of a person to me," Severus frowned in his turn and Juliet shook her head silently, looking at the empty fireplace.

"People are surprisingly different than they seem. He is such a Slytherin beneath that Gryffindor shell," Juliet stated silently. There was a silence for couple of moments.

"How come he ended up in Gryffindor and you are in Slytherin?" Severus frowned and Juliet looked at the man with an amused smile on her lips.

"Because I didn't let the stupid hat to read my mind and sort me into a house," she stated with a clear and comfortable voice and Severus frowned.

"Occlumency?"

Juliet nodded with a smile on her lips. "I could teach you, if you want to. You seem like a person that could very easily catch the concept," she suggested lightly and Severus nodded his head eagerly. Learning something like Occlumency could help him a lot in his future, since now he wasn't anymore quite sure if he had made the right choice by joining the Death Eaters. He questioned it all because...

... Because of her. The girl whose parents had died, the girl who was related to the Dark Lord, the girl who knew Occlumency and Legilimency, the girl who was an Animagus.

He felt his heart beat faster and he couldn't quite understand it, but he had no time to think about it since Slughorn came into the common room with her big brother behind him.

"Mr Snape," Slughorn looked seriously at Severus and he shrugged while rising from the sofa.

"I'll catch you later," he stated calmly and walked past Henry, who seemed to look around the Slytherin dungeons as if he had never been there. Severus thought that it was a possibility, since the man had been a teacher only for three years and he probably didn't enter the Slytherin dungeons during that time.

Juliet however was looking at her older brother with a serious look on her face as he sat down on the sofa next to her and as Slughorn took a seat in front of the fire. Both of them were waiting for the professor to speak, and Henry seemed calm on the outside. Juliet kept an eye on him.

"Mr Adder, your sister has been acting recklessly. Mr Black has claimed that she was an inspiration for stealing Professor Dumbledore's hat and yesterday evening I found her in the common room after curfew extremely intoxicated. There have also been mysterious disappearances during the mornings and she doesn't exactly maintain good relationships in her own house. The school rules state that since she is of age, she won't be expelled, but you must talk with her about this behaviour and make it stop before we have to look for other ways," Slughorn stated and Henry briefly glanced at Juliet, who sat still and stared at Slughorn with an uninterested look on her face.

"I see," Henry stated silently. "However, I should probably say that none of those are actually breaking the rules. The curfew ends at five in the morning and I am quite sure she never leaves the common room earlier knowing that it is impossible to wake her up any earlier than six. Being an inspiration for someone is not a crime, so I would suggest that those who seek inspiration in her should be punished rather than her. Maintaining good relationships in one's house is also not a crime; hexing them into oblivion, however, is one. As for getting drunk and apparently passing out in the common room, well..."

Henry was silent for a moment and then shook his head. "If only she was found last night, I'd suggest you'd ask who else were there." He offered no further explanation and Slughorn looked at both of them astonished. In the end, the professor rose and left the common room, and Henry didn't turn to her before he was gone.

"What happened yesterday with him?" he asked from her in Swedish using a very hushed voice. Juliet looked at her older brother and tried to find the words to speak, but in the end, she just sighed. She quickly rose, grabbed the jewellery box from her room and laid it down between the two of them. Henry looked at it for a moment before pressing his wand on the lid and murmuring a silent spell. He opened the lid carefully and looked inside, clearly shocked of what he saw.

"He gave those to me on Thursday. If I am not incorrect, grandfather Augustus made them. I have no idea of how he managed to get a hold of them, but I accepted the gift and decided to meet him at our home. He didn't reply anything for it." Juliet took in a deep breath as Henry looked at his younger sister with a worried look on his face.

"He was polite for the most part, but he asked about clockwork. He almost cursed me before I could tell him about the vow," Juliet spoke slowly and he could see Henry's knuckles whiten.

"Before he left, he said that he wanted to meet you during the Christmas holidays," she whispered and Henry looked down at the jewellery box, clearly trying his best not to lose his temper. Juliet waited sacredly of what would happen and waited anxiously of what he would say to her.

There was pure rage in his eyes, but also... fear. Juliet looked at the look on her brother's face and realised that something wasn't right. Henry was biting his teeth together so he wouldn't say anything before he thought, and Juliet could see how her brother was shaking. She put her hand on top of his and looked deep into his eyes. Henry took in a deep breath before her started to speak.

"There are ancient laws concerning the pureblood families. One of them is related to marriage," Henry almost spit the word out of his mouth and Juliet stared at him without realising what he was talking about. Her mind wasn't catching up with her quite yet.

"It happens to be that the oldest one in the bloodline, no matter how distant, has the legal right to make pureblooded women marry men of their approval. Since that someone happens to be our _cousin_," Henry sneered at the word, "he has the legal right to decide who you marry."

"I don't really understand what this all means," Juliet said slowly and Henry looked at his younger sister with distress in his eyes.

"Juliet, these jewels... they are a bridal gift. He is going to talk with me because he wants to marry you," Henry tried breaking the news down to her as gently as he could and Juliet could only stare at him with odd detachment in her eyes.

"Marry me? That doesn't make any sense," she said silently, clearly not accepting the truth. Henry held tightly to her hands to keep her as close as possible.

"Paper rose, I am so very sorry," Henry spoke with a silent voice. "I don't know what we can do."

Henry's words rang in her ears and Juliet stared blankly at him, breathing in and out a couple of times before the anger broke on her face.

"I. Will. Not. Marry. Him."

Her words were deadly slow and Henry stared at his younger sister. She quickly rose and carried the jewels back into her room. Henry stood defeated behind her back as he looked at the tensed form of his sister. She stormed angrily out of the common room and Henry followed her.

"If you think for one moment that I will agree to marry someone that I deeply loathe, you are wrong," there was bitterness in her voice and it scared Henry to see the darker side of his sister. Juliet had learned to control it quite quickly, but the glimpses he caught had never been so filled with hate and anger.

"But you have no choice!" Henry sounded terrified of the idea and her steps were not the light and silent as they usually were, but extremely angry and hard.

"You taught me we always had a choice!"

"This is more than we can fight!" Henry yelled at her and Juliet didn't even slow her pace. They were getting closer to the Great Hall and without their knowledge, they had changed back to English. Both of them had lost their tempers and both of them were in so strong emotional turmoil that they could barely even think straight.

"Do you even realise how dangerous this all is?" she yelled at him and they stopped walking in the middle of the entrance hall.

"I know how dangerous it is! I've seen more people die than I ever wanted to!"

"And you'd just gladly let me die?"

"We have no choice!"

"He'll kill me the moment I tell him!"

Her voice was fragile and she could feel the tears burning in her eyes. Henry looked sorry about it all and gently wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. She never let the tears leave her eyes, not in front of half the school. She could feel the worry of the people behind her, she could sense their emotions running, but all she cared about was the fact that Henry was there, that he still cared.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," his voice was strangled as if he couldn't properly breathe.

"There has to be a way. _There has to_," Juliet's voice was shaken. She couldn't understand how or why it all was happening and she only prayed silently in her own mind that there was a way that she didn't need to marry him. She felt helpless for the first time in a long while, completely and utterly helpless and she had no idea of what to do.

"We'll survive through this like we always do. There has to be something we can use in our advantage," Henry tried to calm her down as best as he could and Juliet looked at him for a moment, trying to remember anything that could help her. There was a bright flash behind her eyes.

"Henry... you are still responsible for me and my wellbeing, aren't you?" she asked faintly from him and Henry nodded his head only once. They both stared at each other for a long while.

"Until you turn twenty."

There was a heavy silence.

"You still have the right to make contracts for me."

Both of them stared at each other for the longest time. Juliet could practically feel how fast the gears were moving inside his head and she was just starting to realise what that small detail could mean for her. They both stood there, frozen to their feet and she stared at him for a long while before he moved at all. Both of them were trying their best to grab the concept.

In the end, Henry breathed in deep and looked at Juliet. "It just may work. I don't know how much I can do, but I'll try my best," he said silently and Juliet nodded her head. It certainly was a lot more than she had dared to hope, and the simple fact that they could make him obey some rules helped to relax her and make her think clearly about the situation.

"Go home and read every single book we have about these laws. I'll try to find some spells or potions that may help me," Juliet whispered to him and Henry nodded his head, looking at her seriously and then kissed her forehead. The man watched Juliet walk into the Great Hall where there were only surprisingly little people. She thought it may have been because of the early time and sat next to Severus who looked somewhat shocked.

Juliet poured tea for herself as Severus stared at her. "I think that you might need something a little more strong than tea considering what I could understand," he stated as casually as he could and Juliet stared at the table for a moment.

"I only have half a bottle of firewhiskey left. That is not even nearly enough to forget this problem," she shook her head and felt a banging headache forming. She stared straight in front of her for a long while.

"Do you think I can find a solution?" she asked from him with a silent, tired voice and Severus smiled encouragingly at her.

"I think you will."


	10. Chapter 9: Let The Lonely In

A/N: Wow! I wrote this chapter in two short days, and I could almost swear that it wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. Actually, I can swear it wasn't the smartest idea, since I have exams to read to and I spent way too much time on this chapter instead of reading for those exams. Well, shit happens.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Time was a complex thing. Juliet had learned it early in her life, but still it seemed to amaze her. Sometimes days would pass in a haze and sometimes a minute took an eternity, and still, time flowed through the universe in a steady pace. She could travel in time as far as she wanted, she could choose any time to live and still she would age and die one day. Everyone died, and nobody lived forever.

She was holding her time-turner in her hands and wondering if she should just run away. The common room had quieted down some time earlier and she was sitting in a corner, staring at the fluttering light from the fire. She could leave Hogwarts, her brother and choose another time where there were no Dark Lords, where she could live her life without being painfully reminded of all the things she had seen during her short life. She could go fifty years into the future, change her name and disappear entirely from the face of Earth. Yet, she found that she couldn't do so.

She had fought for so long to have a normal life. She had build complex Occlumency walls to hide her memories into a maze that only she could completely understand just so she could have a normal life, and yet she found herself wondering if the time-turner in her hands could offer the answer no-one else dared to tell her.

The jewels sat in front of her on the table and she stared at them silently. It was already late November and she had refused to put them on another time, but she knew that she would need to do so very soon. Juliet sighed as she looked at the engagement ring inside, on top of it all and bit her lip.

"Another sleepless night?" Severus sat close to her and Juliet raised her eyes at the man, feeling a tad bewildered for she had thought no one was going to face her during the night. Severus looked like he himself couldn't sleep, and Juliet didn't blame him. She had learned some disturbing things of him as she had helped him build his Occlumency walls, and those things probably kept him awake.

"Seems like it," Juliet sighed and leaned her head against the soft back of the armchair. Severus was sitting in a gray t-shirt and black pants, and he looked so different in his attire than usually that it seemed to make her forget a bit that he actually was Severus Snape. She herself had a white nightgown and and an icy blue robe. They both didn't look anything like they looked during the days, and she smiled at the thought. He and she were different during the day and the night, because during the night they could see each other as they actually were.

"There's no way out of the marriage, is there?" Severus asked from her with a silent voice and Juliet looked at him sadly, knowing well her own feelings towards him. She felt extremely close to him and she knew how much he trusted her, and she didn't want anything to ruin their relationship.

"There isn't," she admitted and Severus looked into her eyes.

"Are you alright?" he asked with a kind tone and a slight smile rose on her lips as she looked at him, feeling the weight of the words. She knew that he meant actually a lot more than just the three words he had asked; he wanted to know if he could do anything to help her.

"I'll be. I just still can't wear the ring," she looked at him, feeling an ache in her chest as she said the words. She wished that she wouldn't have to wear the jewels that Tom had given her. She wished that it could be Severus's ring, that they could have their peculiar friendship until the end of time, but fate seemed to enjoy making her life living hell.

"You really should," he said and picked the ring, taking her hand into his own. Juliet felt her heart freeze as the man gently slipped the ring into her left hand and then looked her into the eyes with an open look in his eyes. The ring squeeze itself tightly around her finger and she knew she couldn't take it off as long as her fiancé was alive, but it made her feel better that Severus had been the one to put it on her.

"It's late," he said softly and smiled at her, and Juliet answered the smile without faking it. The look in Severus's eyes made her feel more comfortable, and he sat next to her on the same chair, and she laid her head down on his shoulder. The man kept a hold of her hand and she listened to the calm beats of his heart.

"I wish we could live in another time," she stated silently and Severus gently rubbed circles on her palms.

"Why?"

"Because then we could live in a world without this war. Because I am tired of fighting these battles all by myself," she confessed and felt him turn his head a bit, to rest it on top of hers. He breathed a couple of times and Juliet waited for his answer patiently.

"I'll fight with you." Severus spoke softly, in a hushed voice that no one else could hear and Juliet closed her eyes for a moment, wishing that the moment would never end.

"Promise?" She didn't know why she asked it. There was a small chuckle rising from deep within his chest.

"I will fight alongside you until this war is over, and I will always stay as your friend," he promised her and she could feel her heart beat faster. She raised her head from his chest and looked him deep into his eyes, feeling unexplainable happiness as she looked into the dark eyes that seemed to reflect so little light to anyone else.

She closed her eyes and his lips fell on hers and for one shining moment, she didn't remember all of her problems.

* * *

December brought more worry into Juliet's life. Henry's letter had informed her that he had written most of their part of the contract clear and she just needed to read through it as soon as she came home. Many students would go to their homes during the holidays and Severus no exception. Juliet wished she could go see him during the holidays and maybe visit Lily and the Marauders while she was on it. If that wasn't possible, she was going to sent the man his present by owl.

Juliet knew Severus didn't have a watch for his seventeenth birthday and she had decided to give him one for Christmas. She had thought about what kind of engravings and ornaments she would put on it, and in the end, she had decided to go with his initials wrapped together as snakes and to embed the greenest emeralds for their eyes. The clock was in her room, waiting for the spells she would put in it to protect him and the thought that he would have something that she had made was a beautiful one.

Juliet was currently sitting in the Defence lesson right next to him and drawing a couple of designs on the diary in front of her. The Marauders seemed to be listening to the teaching and Severus was idly taking some notes, but Henry had taught her those spells a couple of years earlier and she had no interest to learn them again nor to listen to the professor that thought he knew everything there was to the Dark Arts.

The professor was a complete idiot in her mind. She had already noticed that the man was excessively arrogant for his own good and that it wouldn't take too long to get rid of him. Juliet suspected he wouldn't even last until the end of year. Even his wand screamed of not understanding the Dark Arts, and defending from something you didn't understand was extremely hard.

Most of the class had cores that were considered as light in their wands. Some Slytherins had darker wands, but Juliet knew that her wand was the darkest of them all. She had inherited her father's wand, and to be honest, it wasn't a very light wand to hold. The core itself was thestral hair from one of the beautiful creatures in their garden, and the wood was willow cut from the bush creeping the orchard walls. It was a strong wand that seemed to know what the owner wanted before they even thought about it, and it had proved many times to be a wand that should be respected.

"Miss Adder!" A yell from their Professor snapped her out of her mind and she raised her eyes to the man that stood in front of her furiously.

"Yes, sir?" Juliet didn't even bother to make her tone sound interested and the professor snapped her drawings from her, looking at the disapprovingly.

"Why are you sitting on this lesson if you aren't clearly interested?" Bagnold asked from her with a harsh tone and some of the Gryffindors snickered.

"Oh, I am interested. The problem is that I have learned these spells years ago," she stated calmly and Bagnold narrowed his eyes.

"Well, have you then? Maybe we should duel just to see how well you have been taught," the man looked angry and Juliet shrugged, rising and then removing her long black robe, changing her black skirt into shorts and then facing the man that was much older than her with a calm expression on her face.

"Shall we go with a traditional duel or fight like they fight in a war?" she asked from him, feeling rather bored. Juliet caught Severus's hidden smile and felt more confident.

"Like they fight in a war, unless you are scared," the Professor said. All the students rose from their chairs and moved away from them as Bagnold cleared some space for them. They stepped away from each other and one of the Slytherins was picked as a reference for their duel.

"On count of three," the Slytherin boy said and Juliet flexed her fingers around her wand, getting ready to fight and staring at the man in front of her. "One," she bent her knees a little and got ready to dive. "Two," the Professor got ready to cast his first spell. "Three."

A bright light went past her and she ducked it easily. _Impedimenta, _she cast a spell silently, and the Professor nearly got on its way. He threw many hexes into her direction, and she blocked them easily, not even bothering to move from their way.

_Incendio, _she casted nonverbally and a ring of fire was formed around them. _Langlock, _she made him unable to yell his spells and knew that she had already won the battle as the man had no idea of how to properly cast spells and hexes without speaking them aloud.

She finished him with a quick _Petrificus Totalus_ and took his wand with an _Expelliarmus_. The man seemed outraged that she had won the duel so easily, and Juliet unlit the fire and made the Professor able to move and to speak again. "Your wand, sir," she said calmly and the man looked like he would have liked to curse her into next week. She however just flicked her wand and the desks and chairs went back to their proper places, and everyone seemed to look at Juliet. Severus had a smile on his lips, and it made her heart feel warmer to know that she had made him proud.

"Well, since it seems like there is no point for you to sit on these lessons, I would suggest you go spend your time in a better way," Bagnold spat and Juliet looked at him, raising an eyebrow as she collected her stuff.

"If you say so," she stated calmly and turned her back to the Professor, walking out of the class with her head held up high. She really didn't mind leaving the stupid class and getting three free periods off every week when she could do some extra work. Juliet wondered silently if she could talk Professor Dumbledore into letting her take some extra classes in charms or transfiguration, but she decided against it quite quickly. On worst case scenario Dumbledore would make her go back to Bagnold's lessons, and she couldn't take the arrogant look of that man any longer.

Her eyes brushed the ring on her left hand and she grimaced inwardly. Only the people who were actually aware of it could see it, and the others were fooled by a powerful glamour. Only she, Severus, Henry and Tom knew about the marriage and what it actually meant, and others just thought that there was anything particular going on rather than she was with Severus.

Juliet sighed and walked towards the Room of Requirement, thinking about Severus an how much she wished that she could marry him, that she didn't need to marry Tom. Ever since the kiss they had shared in the empty common room she had felt extremely attracted to him, and it physically hurt to think that possibly only a year later she could be pregnant with her first child to the man she absolutely loathed and feared deeply. It just wasn't fair that it seemed to happen to her, that she had to let go of the things she loved just because someone else had the legal right to tell her what to do.

Juliet jumped over a step that usually let the students fall through and looked on the top of the stairs, letting her feet take her closer to her little silent space in the school where no one ever seemed to be silent, not even in the library. It seemed that the only peace she could have in the whole school was either in the kitchens, where elves would leave her drink her tea in peace, or in the Room of Requirement, and the second had grown to be her favourite.

The seventh floor corridor was silent and Juliet quickly walked past the tapestry three times, sneaked into the room and found a nice little workshop where she could build something to make herself feel a bit better. She laid her things on the floor and walked around the room, picking up things that she would need for a medallion. It had been a long while since she had worked on jewellery, and she decided that she could just build Lily's gift right now seeing as it would be a rather easy task to do.

Juliet let her mind wander as she started to build the medallion out of silver and rubies that the room had provided for her. She guessed it took them from her personal stocks, since the room couldn't provide her with food or gold, and she guessed the same rules would apply to jewels and silver. With her wand in her hand, she quickly transfigured the silver into the right shape, made a locket out of it and then started to wonder what she should engrave on top of it. She remembered the doe that had been Lily's Patronus and smiled slightly, knowing exactly what she should give for her.

Juliet felt herself relax as she worked and tried to make the locket exactly as it was in her own mind. Henry had taught her a good deal of transfiguration and charms just to make her able to learn the spells that had passed down in their family for years. All of them had been perfected with time and they seemed to be spells no other soul knew about, and Henry had made her swear that she would never tell anyone else the spells if that anyone else wasn't his or hers child.

The medallion was quick to make, and she held the finished piece of jewellery in her hands in less than an hour. She noted that the others would probably be released from their lesson in a couple of minutes and she gathered her things, putting the medallion in her bag and leaving the room quickly.

Juliet was surprised to run to James and Sirius on her way towards the dungeons, seeing as they should have been on the lesson and she raised an eyebrow at the two Marauders. "Did Bagnold throw you too out of his classroom?" she asked lightly from them and both of them grinned.

"Nope. He couldn't make us be quiet after you left, so he decided to let us just go," Sirius said and Juliet smirked.

"I don't think he will last even until the end of second term," Juliet confessed and the two Gryffindors snickered. She shook her head silently as she leaned against the wall and looked at the boys. "Are you working on causing some trouble or is it safe for me to be seen with you two?" she asked them after a while. They looked at each other for a moment, speaking something with just a small look on their face to the other and Juliet was surprised how easily they could let the other know their thoughts. It was as if they were twins.

"We actually wanted to know if you'll be staying here for Christmas," James started lightly and Juliet rolled her eyes, having a hunch of what he was going to say next.'

"Yeah, since James is such a nice guy and everything, he had this great idea of offering a place to stay for you if you have nowhere to go," Sirius continued and Juliet raised an eyebrow, listening to the two of them and just waiting for the grand finale that was on the way.

"You know, Sirius will be there too and then we could go around the country visiting other friends," James said and Juliet bit her lips just not to laugh aloud.

"You could persuade Lily to come to spend the Christmas with us. It would be so much fun, having Peter and Remus there too," Sirius said and Juliet shook her head silently.

"You two are complete morons. No, Sirius, I will not go out with you. Even though you are quite a nice guy, I have something more important to focus on than keeping you on a leash," she stated and James snickered at the comment. Sirius looked like he could not believe a girl had turned him down, but Juliet did not care about the look on the man's face but turned to James, who looked somewhat anxious.

"James, I do have a place to stay in for Christmas, thank you very much for your kind offer though. I would suggest if you want Lily to go out with you, you actually ask her that. Be nice to her: give her flowers and stuffed animals and chocolate, and if you really want to, give her some jewels. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, you know," Juliet breathed quickly and continued. "On another note, stop being such a jerk towards her. Girls don't actually like it when you make a complete moron out of yourself in front of them."

James looked like he would kiss her out of gratefulness, but Juliet wasn't done with it yet. "Also, you have no tact or cunningness at all in you. Slytherin could do you good, seeing as you are obvious to the fact that one, I am not interested in going out with Sirius and two, Lily Evans actually likes you. You are so Gryffindor that it actually does not help you at all. Not everything is about Quidditch, girls, fame and wealth. Try to read a book for once in your life. I think that Lily would appreciate it," Juliet ranted on and the two young men stared at her for a moment, looking astonished that she had actually spoke for so long seeing as she usually answered only with a couple of words for them.

"Juliet Adder, you are a bloody genius," James looked at her and she stepped back, seeing the look in his eyes and knowing that he would otherwise crush her in a hug. Sirius looked at her with amusement in his eyes, clearly not believing that she would not go out with him and probably making a promise for himself that he would make that happen sometime in the future.

"Please don't tell me you have this huge Gryffindorish plan to kidnap Lily Evans and make her marry yourself," Juliet begged and James barked a laugh. He looked highly amused of Juliet's words and there was mischief glistening in his eyes.

"No, though that sounds like a great plan too. I just got an idea how to make sure she'll go out with me," he stated and Juliet shook her head.

"Good luck with that, then. I think I promised to spend some time with Regulus," Juliet couldn't believe that Lily would fall for James, but on the other hand, maybe the man would start to act more like a human being than an awkward monkey around her. She slipped away from the scene, walking quickly to the Slytherin common room and then entering, seeing Regulus sitting by a table and working with homework. Juliet took a seat next to him and the boy looked at her.

"I think the whole school already knows of how you beat that impostor of a professor," the younger Black stated lightly and Juliet leaned back on her chair, enjoying the feeling of knowing she had shown the professor he didn't know half as much as he had believed to know.

"Rumours do seem to spread quickly around here," she noted and Regulus shook his head. Juliet read what he was working on and noticed it to be Divination, something she was completely rubbish at.

"How do you even understand that subject? I know it may be a useful subject for some actual Seers, but it's not really that useful in real life," she stated and Regulus looked at her amusedly.

"Actually, it makes you more creative. I haven't actually made a single prophesy according to the charts and other things in the book since inventing them is so much easier and the professor doesn't even care that much," Regulus laughed and Juliet looked at him, feeling shocked.

"I thought you took your studies seriously!"

"Me? Take my studies seriously? Maybe when the actual subject is interesting and not a bile of Hippogriff dung," Regulus sounded hurt and Juliet couldn't help but laugh a little. The common room went silent with her laughter and she could practically feel every pair of eyes on her, and she frowned in confusion.

"What?" She could not understand their reaction and they seemed to stare at her, not really knowing what to do or what to say. Juliet glanced around the room, not realising why they seemed so shocked, and in the end, it was Regulus that could speak first.

"You never laugh," he muttered and Juliet looked at the table, avoiding everyone's eyes and holding her bag closer to herself. It was weird to think that she had lowered her shell enough to let herself laugh, something she hadn't done in a long while, and it felt odd that she had actually laughed. She seemed to be so stressed nowadays that she didn't find many things worth laughing, but on the other hand, maybe the fact that she could find some light in the middle of darkness meant that the battle still wasn't over.

"The fact that you haven't heard me laughing doesn't mean that I don't laugh," she mumbled and stared at the ceiling, feeling rather awkward while being stared at by most of the common room. After a couple of long minutes filled with tense silence, people started to talk to each other again, and they seemed to be leaving her out of their talk. Juliet felt relieved of the tact of her own house knowing that in Gryffindor they would have talked about that the entire week. However, she couldn't be sure if the Gryffindors would have noted it in the first place at all.

"Your brother gets more annoying day after the other," Juliet muttered after a moment and Regulus snorted at the notice.

"Oh really? What has he done this time?" he asked from her and Juliet gladly told Regulus all about the way the two Gryffindors had come to her and asked for her help, and Regulus couldn't help but to hit his head to the table, laughing silently of the lack of tact his brother and James had performed.

"I can't believe those idiots!" Regulus laughed and Juliet smiled at the sheer atmosphere around the room. Severus had joined them about midway through, coming from a stroll around the lake and listening to the way Sirius was trying to hit on her. Juliet met his eyes and he could almost see how ridiculous it sounded to her: Sirius Black, one of the people who most of the girls in Hogwarts wanted to shag, wanted to go out with her and she had downright refused without giving him a proper reason first. To put on top of it the idiotic way James Potter was acting towards Lily while trying to get on date with her made Severus feeling rather bubbly and glad that Juliet had showed up and ravished their lives.

Juliet tilted her head back and just enjoyed the feeling of belonging somewhere. Below the table, she slid her hand into Severus's and he squeezed it back, as if to say, "I love you".


	11. Chapter 10: I'm Destined To Remain

A/N: Exam week is now over, the snow is finally melting and I can wear my leather jacket outside (vegans don't kill me). I managed to get quite good grades, I think, and the last term is starting today! Summer plans are forming nicely, I might get to see Epica in Helsinki and I've been reading Davey Havok's **Pop Kids**, so all in all, I'm in a very good mood nowadays. Enjoy the chapter!

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Juliet was freaking out. She had been sitting in the library for two days in a row and the teachers had noticed it, but they hadn't questioned it at all. After all, she was just a Slytherin and they didn't seem to mind them unless they were causing trouble. She had read every book on pureblood laws she could get her hands onto but none of them seemed to help her situation at all. Various sentences ran through her head in a scary rumble, and she didn't know how she could turn it off.

_Because of the population declining during the 17th century... The eldest wizard in the family has the right to order the witches to marry the man of his choice... The witches must obey the rule or face death... For various reasons, the law hasn't been abrogated..._

She had barely a week before the holidays and she was spending every possible moment working on protective spells, enchantments and loopholes in the law that could help her in the future, and Severus was working on various potions that could help to save her life. The man was in a way paying for his Occlumency lessons, but Juliet guessed that even without them Severus would have spent numerous hours in the library with her.

At the moment, the young man was sitting at the same table with her and skipping through a pile of potions journals they had managed to get from the Restricted section. Slughorn had been kind enough to sign the permission there when Juliet had confuded the man a couple of weeks earlier, and no one seemed surprised to see that the both of them were working together. Even the Gryffindors, who usually did everything to bother their house, were staying back from them after learning that Juliet had hexed a fourth year Slytherin boy from being too loud in the library. The Marauders had tried to cheer her up, but after many cold glances and threats of hexing them into oblivion they finally understood that they could not help her in that way.

Lily had seemed to notice the way Juliet and Severus barely ate anything and spent most of their time in the library, and she had wanted to help until Juliet had to tell her to back off. She knew that she had hurt Lily's pride, but she had no energy to go and apologise to her before she was sure that they could find something to help her in that situation.

"Have you found anything yet?" Severus asked from her after a long while of silence and Juliet sighed as she raised her eyes from the book she had been reading.

"Nothing that could help me. The loopholes I could use can be very easily prevented, since my future husband wants to marry me and since there's nothing wrong with my health." Juliet knew she sounded extremely tired and Severus looked deep into her eyes, rubbing circles on her palms and calming her down in his own, special way.

"Don't worry, we will find something. This far I've only found a couple of potions that could help you, and they seem to be too dangerous to brew unless we can find a place where no-one will bother us and where the cauldron can simmer in peace," Severus sighed and rubbed his temples. He clearly was annoyed by the fact that there were so many things that seemed to be aligning against them, and Juliet bit her lip silently.

"Can I see them?" she asked from him and Severus opened two books, leaving Juliet to read them. The first potion was to help with the after-effects of Cruciatus, and Juliet felt her stomach dropping. Severus saw the look on her face but said nothing.

"We should work on this one. Do you have any idea how we could make this one more effective?" she asked from him and Severus read the ingredients, thinking about it for a moment.

"If we can find fresh star grass and snakeweed, while changing the order and thus changing the strength, it might help us quite a bit," Severus spoke slowly, clearly thinking about it. He took a notebook out of his bag and started to scribble something, and Juliet checked the other two potions and noted that they wouldn't be as useful in the future as the first potion.

Juliet turned back to her own books and absentmindedly played with the necklace that had been found in the jewellery box. She had accepted wearing them in the end, but she still was looking for ways get out of the forced marriage she was about to enter.

A horrifying thought crossed her mind. What if Tom wanted an heir and had decided to marry her because of it? Juliet's blood turned cold in her veins and she froze completely, just staring at the book in front of her. She was scared for her life, and she knew that if it were the situation, she would be doomed for the rest of her life.

She knew that her mother had had many miscarriages before finally having Henry, and she knew it was a miracle she had been born. There was a long history of miscarriages and children dying in her family, and she could feel how a terrifying thought started to form in her head.

The torture she had received when she was a toddler. The scars would have easily been erased from her with the assistance of healers if they had not been extremely deep.

What if they had also caused something else in her body?

Henry had never spoken about it with her nor had she ever been to a healer. She had rarely been sick, and during those times it had only caused her to stay in bed for a couple of days. Injuries had been quickly healed with the spell she and Henry had been perfecting for a couple of years and there had been never a good reason for a health check. There was a huge possibility that she could not be as healthy she had thought to be.

It could also be her way out of the marriage. She knew for a fact that she could try to use it in advantage with Tom, but she didn't know how well it could work. Juliet's eyes slowly moved to Severus who was hunched over the notebook and making calculations of how he should change the amount of ingredients and the times he should leave the cauldron to simmer.

She wasn't sure if that would help her enough, but it was a start. She quickly read a part of the law that was describing the reasons why these marriages wouldn't be approved, and smiled silently as she scribbled the part down on her own notebook.

Severus glanced at her as she wrote but said nothing. He had written the original instructions in his notebook and now was turning back to the texts. He noted that Juliet abandoned the old law books and then turned towards the books about charms and hexes that she could use in her advance.

They continued their work in silence.

Madame Prince threw them out of the library half an hour before curfew and they walked silently towards the Slytherin dormitories, each thinking about the things they had found and silently discussing about them. Severus had gone through all the things he had found, and he let Juliet tell him about spells that could help her magic heal any damage in her own body, something that could be put on the jewellery. She had also found spells that could protect her from minor hexes and others, and they were wondering together what would be the best way to cast those spells. Juliet was not sure of what kind of magic her family members had left in the jewels, but she had a feeling that these spells would not interfere with the old protection too much.

They walked into the common room, still talking about the potion and noticed after a while that most of the students were silent and the others were whispering in ushered tones, and they stopped talking immediately. "What is going on?" Severus asked from them silently and Juliet could feel her heart beating faster. Regulus lifted his eyes at them and looked straight into Juliet's.

"He's coming tonight."

The three words were enough to make Juliet's heart skip a beat and she stared at Regulus. She knew that the boy was suspecting something, and she was getting scared. She had thought that she would have at least the week free from her future husband, but the fact that he was going to be there, at _Hogwarts_, the very same night was not easing her worry.

She had no idea of how the man could get into Hogwarts. There was a war going on outside and it should have been impossible, but he had already managed to get in there once and she feared that he could get in there many times more. Juliet silently sat down on a wingback chair close to the corner of the room, away from the light casted by the warming fire and started to skip through her notebook, looking at the drawings and plans of various works just to calm herself down. She draw new plans with shaking hands, noticing how younger students left the common room and only those who were there to meet the Dark Lord were left. Juliet lowered her eyes back at the notebook and continued making new plans, trying her very best to get her fast beating heart to slow down.

Severus was close to the fire, clearly worried about her, but he did not even glance into her direction. Juliet knew that he was as much in danger as she was seeing as she had kissed him and that most of the school really thought they were an item. Juliet didn't know how Tom would react to the rumour, but she could only hope the Slytherins were smart enough not to tell about it to the Dark Lord.

She stared at her drawings for a while and traced the faint lines of a pocket watch she had drawn months earlier. It reminded her of her father, even if she couldn't remember that much about him. She just knew her father had been very similar to herself and Henry had adopted their mother's nature. There were fragile memories of them and she smiled silently, in her own corner as she looked at the book in her lap and then closed it silently.

She raised her eyes and observed the people in the common room. Rosier, Wilkes, Severus, Regulus, Avery and Mulciber looked like they were used to these sorts of meetings when they had to be cautious of what they said in fear of losing their own lives. A couple of others seemed to be quite nervous and Juliet seemed to be the only one who didn't look grim or scared. She had learned to control herself a long time ago, never showing her true emotions to anyone and she would not let something like that break through her demeanour.

Everyone was silent when the Dark Lord entered the snake pit. Juliet observed him silently from her own corner and didn't flinch nor move involuntarily as his eyes shifted over her. The man did not acknowledge her in any other way, but Juliet knew that he was keeping an eye on her behaviour. She wasn't sure of what means he could use, but she was sure to keep a low profile and not to brag about herself.

"I see that your numbers have risen," the Dark Lord spoke with a velvety tone. Juliet lowered her head and listened to the man speaking rather than looking at him. She knew of the risk that looking into his eyes brought on her, and she was sure not to let her Occlumency walls wither down.

"There have been numerous of you whom have asked about joining me, and I must say that I am pleased to hear about this. However, I will not be marking my servants during the holidays as most have predicted due to various plans taking action then." Juliet could _feel_ him looking into her direction for a moment, but she still didn't look at the much older man.

"The ones that have been proved worth of the mark will receive it during the summer vacation, and they will be initiated to the cause of the pureblood," the Dark Lord spoke and Juliet could feel a grip forming around her throat. She had friends who were not pureblood, and she could only guess what Tom could do to Severus. It worried her, knowing about the game she was playing and the price she could end up paying.

"Right now I wish to speak with my marked followers and Miss Adder," Tom announced at the room and Juliet could feel people glancing nervously into her direction. She rose silently from her chair in the corner and walked towards the fire, easily sitting down on a wingback chair and directing her attention towards the Dark Lord. The others dissolved from the room and she was left there with Severus, Avery, Mulciber, Wilkes and Rosier. They all seemed to be very nervous about the fact of how relaxed was on the interior, but on the inside she was planning on for her escape.

"I asked you to stay because I will be hosting a New Year's Ball during your holidays and I wish to see you all in there. There shall be dancing and food and wine for you to enjoy and you can make some new friends while at the ball. It shall be hosted at the Malfoy Manor and the evening will start at eight on New Year's Eve. You can also bring an escort at the party, if you are willing," Tom spoke and Juliet noted how conventionally the man had lured them into a trap. None of them could say 'no' as an answer in fear of losing their own lives, and all seemed to accept the fact.

"What is the dress code like?" Juliet asked calmly from him, not even minding the looks she received from the marked men. The Dark Lord smiled in a way that made her uneasy on the heart.

"Formal robes are always an approved choice. I believe Lady Malfoy would like you to go look for your dress," Tom spoke eloquently and Juliet shook internally shook her head. It was clearly a threat on his part, an excuse for him to have her out of her own home.

"I'm afraid I shall have to decline the offer. It seems like I already have enough dresses to last for the rest of my life," she smiled sweetly and rose from the chair, holding her notebook against her chest.

"It is rather late. I think it is better for me to go sleep. Good night, _my lord_," Juliet put an innocent pressure on her words that would make others think that she was respecting him but make him think that she would not talk about that thing at the moment. She could feel the anger radiating from him as she slipped into her dorm and closed the door behind her, leaving them on the other side and enjoying the safety and the silence the room provided for her.

Juliet quickly grabbed her nightshirt from under her pillow and went into the toilet for a change. She washed her face and looked at herself on the mirror for a moment, sighing deeply and knowing her thoughts would keep her awake that night. It wasn't easy to fall asleep knowing that the Dark Lord was angry with you, and the situation was worsened by the fact that she would have to meet him during the holidays at least two times.

She opened the door into the bedroom and froze on her place. The Dark Lord, _Tom Riddle_,was sitting on her bed and clearly waiting for her to enter. It was such a nerve-wracking scene to look at that she just frowned at leaned on the doorframe.

"To what do I owe the pleasure to?" she asked from him in a silent tone, playing with her wand before casting a silencing spell on the door. The Dark Lord looked amused of her exterior and Juliet could feel how he was measuring her with his eyes.

"I will be meeting you and your dear brother in your home December 27th. Do try to behave then," he said silently and Juliet looked at him for a moment, just observing him with her eyes.

"Why do you want to marry me?" she asked. Tom raised an eyebrow at her and stared back into her eyes for a long while before answering her.

"Pray tell, why would that interest you?" the man mocked her and Juliet stood there, swallowing her own anger and doing her best to not point her wand at him. She knew what it could cause, and she was not willing to let him have a reason to attack her.

"Because if I am going to marry you, I want to be sure of couple of things," she simply answered. Tom leaned in closer and narrowed his eyes.

"I'm listening."

Juliet bit her lip for a moment. "We will have a contract about this marriage, something neither of us can break," Juliet stated silently and the Dark Lord raised an unbelieving eyebrow at her.

"You can have that, if you want," he stated, "but I will have my requirements."

Juliet felt uneasy about it, but she knew that she had to let him have a word on it. There could be a way to make it protect her own life, and maybe he wouldn't demand too much from her. Maybe.

"Also, there are some requirements I may not be able to fulfil," she muttered tiredly and Tom stared at her for a moment.

"Are you talking about an heir?" he bluntly asked and Juliet nodded her head once. The man seemed to be deep in thought and she waited, scared of his reaction. It was clear to her that she had just messed up his plans, and the thought made her feel frightened. How would he react? Would he turn his anger towards her?

"We need to discuss about this later," the man just simply said and Juliet nodded her head once, feeling relief flooding into her mind. Tom rose and stood in the middle of the room, looking at his fiancée that seemed to be extremely tired and Juliet avoided his eyes.

"I'll see you on the 27th," she muttered and the man nodded his head, leaving from her room. Juliet removed the silencing spell drop from the door and then sat down on her bed, right where Tom had sat just a moment earlier, and she took in a deep breath.

He hadn't killed her, and that was a good sign. He had started yelling or threatened her any more than would be considered normal for him, and he had told her the day he would come to meet the Adders. Sure, he also expected her to come to a New Year's Ball with many of his followers and possibly meet the people that had killed her parents, but considering other parts of the night, it had went rather well. Tom had not found out about her and Severus, she was feeling rather fine and she had had the most worrying part in her mind to dealt with.

Juliet was woken from her thoughts by the silent knock on her door and she rose from her bed wrapping a robe around her. Her steps carried her to the door quickly and she peeked on the person on the other side.

Regulus looked worried as he waited for her to let him in. Juliet let him come and closed the door again, looking at the younger boy and waiting for him to speak feeling much more relaxed than with the other man in her room that night.

"What did he want with you?" the younger boy asked and Juliet answered with a calm smile.

"Don't worry, Reg. I've got the situation under control," she reassured him, but the young boy just shook his head and refused to believe her.

"This is an extremely dangerous game, Jules. He may kill you if you're not careful," Regulus sounded desperate and Juliet sat down on her bed, waiting for him to do the same. The younger boy looked into her and Juliet wrapped an arm around him.

"Reg, I know this is dangerous, but it's something I have to do. I promise I'll keep myself safe," she told him with a gentle voice and looked at the young boy. She knew he was going to die very soon, and the thought crushed her heart. Regulus wasn't going to live much longer than two years, and there was a desperate need inside of her to save his life, but she didn't know how.

"Are you sure about it? Is there no way you can run away?" he asked from her unsurely and Juliet gently hugged him.

"I have a little lion inside me. It has taught me that running away is not the solution, but to face the danger and to learn how to break the rules without being caught," she told him and the young boy looked at her for a moment.

"My parents expect me to become a Death Eater," he said with a scared voice and Juliet looked at him for a moment. She felt like losing Regulus was a big mistake, like there had to be a way to save his life. She sighed tiredly and looked straight into the grey eyes.

"I know. I'm sorry," Juliet felt tired and looked at the fear in his eyes. "I know things are going to get a lot worse very soon, but I think that maybe if we fight together, there is a greater chance of survival. We could ask if Severus would want to help," Juliet suggested and Regulus had a bewildered look on his face.

"Severus? But he's been a Death Eater since the summer," the boy objected and a fragile smile rose on Juliet's lips.

"So he has. Sometimes good people make bad choices and we have to live with them for the rest of our lives. I know for a fact that there is a very slight chance of me surviving this war, but it still doesn't stop me from fighting," Juliet told him and Regulus looked shocked. He stared straight into her blue eyes and tried to find words.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been a target for a while now. There are things I know that some other people don't know, and telling this information to them could change the course of this war. I have to guard these secrets with my own life, and if I can keep them as secrets, then I have not lost my life in vain," Juliet explained and Regulus frowned.

"We're just a bunch of children. How can you speak so calmly about dying?" there was certain panic in his voice. Juliet looked down at her hands and thought about it for a moment.

"Are you afraid of death?" Regulus was silent for a moment before frowning and then nodding his head. "I'm not. That is the answer."

They were silent for a while and Regulus seemed to be deep in thought. Juliet hugged him with one arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry about it, Reg. We'll get through this together."

Regulus left her room after a moment of silence and Juliet was left alone in her thoughts. She knew about how two of her greatest friends were constantly scared for their lives, and it was hard to watch by as they fought to keep on the surface and not drown in the darkness surrounding them. No teacher cared enough to take care of the Slytherins that were in the crossfire, and it was scary to see how many were simply turning to the darkness because there was no one else that cared. Juliet rubbed her temples and thought about the situation for a moment before taking in a deep breath.

She would need to write to Henry about it. Juliet grabbed parchment and ink from her trunk and stared at the blank paper for a moment, trying to find words to describe the situation to her own brother.

_Henry,_

_My fiancé came here today and asked some of us to join him for a New Year's Ball. He is going to meet us the 27th at our home and we need to clear the contract by then. He agreed to write his name to it, if he has the right to add something to it himself. It is better than I expected._

_Is there any chance we can save people's lives? A friend of mine, Regulus Black, is scared for his own life and I want to help him. He does not want to join the Death Eaters and I do not know what to do. Do we have any information of who are going to die in the first war?_

_Many Slytherins seem to be open for his influence. I'm scared for them. I know I can't change the future, but it seems like every time he walks into our lives more people are waiting for him with open arms. There are already so many supporters in this house that I am no longer sure of if it's safe for me in here._

_Please answer me soon. I need your help._

_Juliet_

She put the letter in an envelope and the summoned her Patronus, looking at the calm wolf in her room. "Please give this to my brother," she asked from the silvery animal and it took her letter, changing it into a silvery form and then ran out of her room.

She was left to sit on her bed with her thoughts raging inside her own head and her stomach twisting into knots, and all she could think about was all of the people whom were going to die and whom she could not save.


	12. Chapter 11: An Elaborate Dream

**A/N:** So, it is Monday again. I have been updating the previous chapters a bit, correcting some grammatical errors and whatever, and I noticed one thing: Severus's mother. At first I claimed that his father had killed her, but later I stated that she was still alive. She is actually alive, Severus just thinks of her being dead due to certain reasons shown later in this story. Or in next chapter.

Okay, I've said enough, now it's time to let you read.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

_Juliet,_

_Please be careful. Do not trust anyone around you and let them have no power over yourself. I will try to find a solution to this problem._

_I already had an idea of what he may require, and I think we can afford to let him have those things. However, you must be extremely careful with the things you do and the things you say. Always be careful._

_He will come here the 27th, and we will be ready for it. I am not entirely sure of that New Year's Ball and if it is safe for you to go alone, but we will have to talk about it later. Will Severus join you there? Could you have one of your friends in there?_

_I do not know how to help you with the Slytherins. It would raise far too many questions if you changed house after Christmas, but I think that the protective charms on the jewels may be helpful against any attacks. You just need to keep the lion on the leash and let the snake roam free._

_In our past, they never found his body. That is all I can say in these letters._

_Stay safe._

_Henry_

Henry's Patronus had brought the letter to her on breakfast and she had seen how shocked people were about it, but she didn't care about as she quickly grabbed the letter before the owl vanished and then started to read the words written in Swedish. Many people were trying to take a look of the letter, but she didn't let them read any of the words.

_They never found his body._ If they never found his body, that meant...

Regulus could survive that war. She could keep him hidden from the day of his supposed death until the day that the war was going to end, and she could save at least one life. The thought formed slowly inside her head and she glanced quickly at the young boy who was hanging with the Quidditch team. In less than two years he was supposed to disappear. Juliet had enough time to find a way to save him and to find him a place to hide before of those events.

"Your thoughts are quite loud, my dear," Severus murmured right next to her ear and the shock of him simply walking in her like that kicked her out of her own thoughts. She stared at the young chuckling man and tried to catch up with reality.

"And how would you know that?" Juliet raised an eyebrow and Severus simply sat next to her. She had no idea where the man had been earlier that morning.

"I may not be able to break through your walls but I still can hear you brain buzzing," he stated lightly as he poured some coffee for himself. Juliet looked at the man in shock.

"You're in a good mood considering the fact that you haven't had any coffee yet," she murmured and Severus chuckled gently.

"I'm going to get my Potions mastery during the next five years according to Slughorn," Severus said and Juliet looked at him while a soft smile spread on her lips.

"That's wonderful! Is he going to take you as an apprentice?" she asked from him, violently throwing her previous thoughts inside her deeper shields and focusing with all her energy at Severus.

"It seems so. He wants to retire and if I can have my mastery rather soon, no more students need to be under the influence of our corrupted professor," Severus stated and Juliet grinned.

"You wouldn't do it for the fact that you'd become the youngest Potions master in five hundred years, would you?" she teased him and Severus shook his head, trying desperately to force himself to stay calm and not to show his amusement.

"Of course not. I just have an extremely deep passion for Potions," the man stated and Juliet shook her head, staring at the table with a small smile on her lips.

"You know, there are more important things in life than pleasing some old corrupted man," Juliet almost said to herself and her thoughts immediately were drifted to Tom. She inwardly grimaced at the thought and raised her eyes at Severus whom had a smile on his face.

"Oh, I know," he stated and looked deep into her eyes, and Juliet could feel her heart being thrown out of the window. They quickly looked away from each other and Juliet tried to gather herself, stop herself from being so reckless. If the Slytherins mentioned anything about the situation, Tom would kill Severus without a doubt for touching what was Tom's.

"Have you found anything interesting at the library?" Juliet asked from Severus, trying her very best to forget his subtle flirts with her and calm herself down before anyone noticed how they looked at each other. Severus leaned back and sighed silently.

"Not really. There are some theories, but they simply are theories and I have no idea how well they would work in reality," he confessed and Juliet nodded her head once, looking very pensive.

"We have probably read through most of the books in the restricted section. Madame Pince may not be that happy about us trying to rip the library apart for any longer," Juliet muttered and Severus looked at the wall behind her head for a couple of moments.

"Do you have any idea when this all is going to happen?" he asked from her and she shook her head.

"I suppose it's after I have graduated, seeing as he probably wouldn't be happy of me staying at Hogwarts at the time," Juliet spoke with a hushed tone and Severus turned his eyes back at her.

"I think we need to start working on those potions right after the holidays to make sure everything works as it should. You have found some charms and spells, haven't you?" he confirmed from her and Juliet affirmed it with a simple nod. "I think that you could put at least some of those charms in the ring, seeing as it won't come off," Severus's tone was extremely silent so that none could hear their conversation.

"That's exactly what Henry suggested me. Once we have enough spells, it may become possible that if he tries to hurt me in any way, the magic will simply push him away from me or reflect the spells," Juliet answered and Severus looked relieved for a moment. Juliet took in a deep breath.

"I need your help with the ball," she told him silently and Severus looked at her, not quite understanding what it was about. "There is a possibility that there are some people I'd rather not meet and those people want to hurt me. It would be good to have a second pair of eyes," she told him and Severus seemed to understand.

"You want me to become your date," he sounded shocked and Juliet grimaced at the word.

"Keep it down! Do you have any idea what he could do to you if he found out?" Juliet hissed and Severus turned ashen. "I'm not entirely sure of my own safety in there, and Henry will probably join me if it seems like having you as my date in there would risk your safety, but having you there would mean that he would become aware of our relationship and then later it could help me keep you safe," she spoke quickly. Severus seemed to think about it for a moment.

"But what if he has a hunch about our real relationships?" the man seemed worried and Juliet bit her lip. She thought about the problem for a moment and then raised her eyes at Severus.

"I could tell him that I only see you as a friend," she murmured silently and Severus frowned for a moment, clearly pondering about it.

"It may not be enough," he stated softly and Juliet bit her lip.

"I'm not going to lose you because of this whole situation. We just need to fight for ourselves and make sure that he won't hurt us," Juliet said and looked deep into Severus's eyes. He looked at her and the pondering seemed to turn into determination. She knew well enough how dangerous it was, but at that moment, she just wanted to kiss him.

She could see from his eyes that he wanted to do the same.

He gave his hand to her and she took it. "For us," he stated with a stern voice.

"For us."

* * *

The train ride from Hogwarts to London actually was quite pleasant. Juliet had first felt like she wouldn't join them seeing as she could very well apparate back home, but in the end Regulus and Severus had nearly dragged her into the train, and she was glad about it. They had their own compartment in the train, the views were sensational and they were talking about things that weren't too serious. At one point, some of the Quidditch team joined them, and then Lily came by to ask Juliet to drop by during the holidays, but mostly they stayed on their own and either played chess, talked, or stayed in silence, deep in their own thoughts.

At King's Cross, the trio walked out from platform 9¾ together and said goodbye to each other. Juliet promised she would visit them at one point during the holidays, but she couldn't exactly point out a day when it was good to leave the sanctuary her home provided. The boys seemed to understand this either way, but looked grim about the thought. In the end Juliet hugged them and quickly apparated away from there to avoid more awkward silence, landing just outside the Adder Estate in the southern England. She could feel the salt that the wind brought from sea and breathed in deep for a couple of times before looking at the pathway towards the house. She hadn't realised it earlier, but she had missed being so close to the sea. Scotland couldn't beat Devon and she pulled her trunk with her inside the estate.

The thestrals greeted her with a silent shriek that echoed through the trees and Juliet waved her hand at the creatures. The heard had lived there for decades and since the creatures didn't harm them in any way, their ancestors had left them to roam free on the lands.

Juliet pressed her hand against the door and the lock clicked silently, opening from her touch. She walked inside the house and looked around, waiting for Henry to show up.

"Did you have a pleasant trip?" she heard a voice carrying from above her and she raised her eyes at the top of the stairs, smiling at her older brother. Henry had a small on his lips and he looked much more relaxed than the last few times she had seen him.

"It actually was quite nice. I didn't expect a long journey in a train to be that pleasant," Juliet smiled back and met the familiar twinkling light shining bright from her brother's eyes. Henry quickly jogged down the stairs into the entrance hall and hugged her tightly. Henry looked like his old self: wearing a worn jumper and black pants, having his reading glasses on and looking like a middle-aged English literature professor in a muggle university. Juliet had always found it quite amusing that her brother was magically extremely talented but enjoyed more about learning and teaching than showing off with his talents.

"I've missed you," she whispered silently and she could hear how a deep chuckle rose from his chest.

"Quite the same, paper rose. It's been too quiet in the house while you aren't causing any havoc," he teased her and she gently punched him in the ribs. Henry laughed calmly and led her to upstairs with him. The elves seemed to have already taken her trunk and Juliet noted that Henry seemed oddly relaxed considering how stressed she had been about the entire situation.

"So, what have you been up to?" she asked from him with a bright tone and witnessed Henry blushing for the first time in her life. She stopped in the middle of the staircase and just stared at Henry, whom now looked very uncomfortable and seemed to be quite nervous about something.

"Henry? Is there something you haven't exactly told me?" she asked from him with an unbelieving tone. Henry's face went even deeper crimson and her eyes were wide open.

"Oh dear Merlin," she breathed, "It's about a bloody time."

Henry looked bewildered at her comment and stared at Juliet for a long time before walking into the great library and towards the comfortable reading area by the fireplace.

Henry sat down and Juliet was seated on a sofa opposite from him, and she could not stop a grin rising on her lips. Henry looked quite confused about the situation and he was wriggling in an attempt to avoid looking at his sister. Juliet had to bite her tongue to stop herself from laughing at the look on the man's face. It seemed like he was horrified of the idea.

"So, whom are you seeing?" Juliet asked from him and Henry looked awkwardly at his own hands. Juliet felt like it should have been the other way around: she should have been scared to death in front of her brother while trying to tell him about a person she was seeing, but instead she was the one about to step into an arranged marriage and Henry was the one to date a woman for the first time in years.

"Her name's Grace – Grace McArthur. She is ten years younger than I am and lives in the village. We met in the bookshop," Henry blushed at the last notion and Juliet had a hard time not to squish him in a hug. Henry looked so confused about the situation that she just could not help but to feel like Henry was actually very much in love.

"Is she a muggle?" Juliet asked curiously and Henry shook his head.

"No. She is a witch, but her mother is a muggle. Apparently her father is a wizard," Henry said nervously and Juliet frowned. She was happy for him, but a bad feeling was forming inside her and she bit her lip.

"I know why you are so worried about this," she stated silently. The fact that she was about to marry the biggest muggle hater in the wizarding history while Henry dating someone with a part of muggle in them could cause some problems in their little family. Juliet rubbed her temples and stared at her brother for a moment, taking in a deep breath and thinking about what choices they had.

Henry could stay with Grace. Looking at her brother, she just knew that he was head over heels with her and that simply meant that Henry was ready to fight for their relationship. On the other hand, Tom could easily cause an accident to happen on Grace's mother and the thought wasn't quite that tempting.

The second choice was for them to break up before anything happened, but it would break Henry's heart. Juliet couldn't just let something like that happen while knowing that Henry would try his best to keep Grace safe, and that would expose his feelings towards her to the Dark Lord.

The third choice was for them to keep it as a secret, but Juliet had a feeling that Henry didn't want anything like that. He would want to be open about his relationship with Grace even thought it could be dangerous for the both of them.

"We'll need to put in the contract that he won't hurt anyone I consider family, and get you two at least engaged quite soon," Juliet sighed and Henry stared at her. Juliet felt uncomfortable while being observed by her older brother in such way, but she didn't complain about it.

"Would you really be willing to do that? He will want to have something else for agreeing to such terms," Henry spoke with a soft and a silent tone, and Juliet just nodded her head.

"You are my brother. I will not let some bigoted psychopath to ruin your life too," she stated and she noticed that last word too late. Henry had a sad look in his eyes and he seemed ready to burst into tears, but Juliet smiled at him.

"I know my life is going to change very soon, but I keep on remembering that it will only be for about three years until he is defeated. Three years is a short time, Henry. I can do so much in three years. I can fight him from the inside; learn secrets no one else knows about and maybe even find a way to stop him in the end. It's worth the risk," she spoke gently and Henry shook his head with his eyes closed.

"If you die because of this I will never forgive myself. I made a promise to myself to keep you safe, and it seems I can't even do that," Henry sounded like he was being suffocated by his own thoughts, and Juliet quickly moved to sit next to him. She pressed her head against his shoulder and sat there a moment, drawing circles on his palm and calming him in the same way that Severus had calmed her down countless of times.

"It's not really your fault," she stated silently. "You have fought for me more than anyone else and still you don't ask any favours. You are the best kind of brother I could have been blessed with," she murmured and stopped drawing circles on his skin as he turned towards her and looked at her for a moment, not quite catching she had just said.

"But I've let you down so many times," his voice was hallow and Juliet shook her head.

"But you've still stayed with me. Henry, I know the risks. I know that there is a chance I may not survive this war, and I am willing to fight to keep my loved ones safe. I can do this, I really can," she told him with a strong voice and in the end Henry just looked at her, seemingly worried of his little sister and Juliet smiled back at him.

"Promise me that if he ever hurts you, you'll come home for me," Henry's tone was dead serious.

"I promise."

* * *

On Christmas Eve, Juliet took her friends' gifts from her trunk, dressed up in a green silk dress and decided to visit them all before of all the things that would be happening very soon. She had met Grace the day earlier, and she had to admit that Henry and Grace made a very strong couple. Both seemed to love books and even thought Grace was extremely smart, she still wasn't arrogant nor was she too boring. Actually, you couldn't even think about the word 'boring' while being close to Grace: the woman seemed to always have a smile on her face and she made both Adders feel much more relaxed.

Therefore, she diminished the packages, put them inside her black winter coat and then walked out of the Adder House. The rain greeted her and Juliet absentmindedly played with the watch hanging from her neck. She walked past the oaks and enjoyed the rain on her skin, casting a quick spell to stop herself from getting wet. She decided first to meet with Regulus in London and then go meet Remus, Sirius and James at the Potters' home. She knew about Remus's 'little furry problem' and that the full moon was going to descend on the Christmas Day, and she wished there was anything she could do to help the young man.

Juliet apparated away from her home right outside the gates and landed in a secluded alley back in London, looking around herself for a moment and wondering where she should go. She had never been to Grimmauld Place, but she knew that the Black family had lived there for quite some time already.

Juliet wandered the streets for a moment before finding the park Regulus had spoken about and then looked around herself for a couple of moments, finding the right direction and walking into Grimmauld Place. She stopped on her track as she felt for magic and stared between number 11 and 13 for a moment before number 12 popped between them before walking to the door and politely knocking on it.

There was a silence for a moment before a strict looking man opened the door. Juliet was astonished by how much Orion Black looked like his two sons before she caught herself from staring at the man.

"Who may you be?" the man asked from and Juliet smiled calmly.

"I am Juliet Adder. Regulus is a friend of mine from school," she explained calmly and the man raised his eyebrows, letting Juliet come inside. Juliet looked around in the grim house and bit her lip feeling all of the dark magic surrounding herself. She knew she had to get used to the feeling, but it still irked and bothered her.

A woman came down the stairs and looked at Juliet. "Oh, so you are the girl Regulus keeps talking about," the woman noted and gave her hand to Juliet. She shook it silently and looked into the eyes of Walburga Black.

"I hope your son has had the decency to not mention my name in circles I'd rather keep it away from," Juliet smiled charmingly at Mrs Black and the woman turned to her husband. The couple shared a knowing look between each other and Juliet had to bite her lip in order not to burst into laughter. They clearly were wondering how long it would take until she would join the family and the thought seemed to amuse her much more than it should have.

"Regulus's room is in the fourth floor. I think he was reading there," Mrs Black said and Juliet nodded her head.

"Thank you, Mrs Black," she beamed once more at both of the elder Blacks and then quickly walked up the stairs until she reached the fourth floor. Her eyes moved towards the first door of the floor and she walked to it, knocking on it and calmly waiting for Regulus to open it.

Juliet felt like she was being observed and she didn't like it at all, but Regulus opened his door soon and the young boy beamed at her. "Juliet! Come in," he made room for her and let the young woman enter his room. Juliet quickly hugged him and then looked at him for a moment.

"Merry Christmas. Have you had a nice holiday?" she asked from him while taking his present from her pocket and gave it to his hands. Regulus beckoned her to sit down on his bed and Juliet did so while the boy lowered the package on his table and then pulled a package out of his own desk. Regulus sat on the chair next to the desk and smiled at Juliet.

"It's been quite pleasant, thank you very much. How about you?" he seemed interested in it and Juliet bit her lip.

"Thus far everything has been quite nice. Henry is courting someone and I had no idea about it, and those two are so lovesick it almost makes me indisposed," Juliet told Regulus and the boy raised his eyebrows at the young woman close to him.

"Says the girl who seems to have all of the guys in Slytherin after her," Regulus teased her and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"I can't even imagine what kind of agony Valentine's Day is going to be," she groaned and Regulus laughed. He went silent after a moment and then stared at Juliet, clearly pondering if he should ask something or not. Juliet sighed inwardly.

"Go ahead and ask," she leaned back and stretched her neck, waiting for Regulus to ask her his question. The boy frowned as he looked at the young woman.

"Are you and Severus an item?" he asked from her and Juliet looked down at her hands. She bit her lip for a moment and gently rubbed her neck, trying her very best to explain the situation to Regulus.

"I'm engaged to someone else," she said slowly and Regulus looked at her left arm, noticing the engagement ring for the first time, but stayed silent as Juliet searched for words. She sighed and thought about how she could even start to explain the whole thing to Regulus.

"It's an arranged marriage of which I can't get away from. Right now it looks like the situation is stable enough, but I can't be that sure about it all. With the fact that I am in love with Severus, it's not going to be very easy for neither of us," Juliet sighed and Regulus looked at her, utterly shocked. Juliet stared down at the floorboards and tried her very best to calm down herself in front of the younger Slytherin.

Understanding flashed in Regulus's eyes and Juliet carefully looked at him. The boy looked like he couldn't form words and he seemed to have trouble with accepting the truth. "The Dark Lord," he just whispered silently and Juliet nodded her head, feeling scared.

"You are engaged to the Dark Lord?" Regulus whispered once again and Juliet couldn't do anything else than just stare at the floor for a moment in attempt of getting herself composed again.

"And you are in love with Severus?" he whispered once more and Juliet nodded her head. It was the first time she had said it out loud, and the thought was at the same time very frightening and very comforting. Regulus was silent for a couple of moments while trying to digest the information and Juliet nervously waited for his first words to be let free.

"He's going to kill you and Severus if he ever finds out," Regulus sounded still like he was in a shock and Juliet took in a deep breath.

"I know. We are trying to find a way to make him believe that Severus is the only one having romantic feelings and save his life," Juliet told Regulus and the young boy nodded faintly. They sat in silence for a couple of more moments until Regulus let out a breath he hadn't been aware of holding.

"Okay. I think it's better if I first get my head around this and then I'll start helping you out," Regulus muttered and Juliet looked at him, with an unbelieving look on her face. She couldn't really believe his words, but Regulus looked like he had made his decision.

"Thank you," Juliet whispered and quickly hugged tightly, and Regulus answered it with a warm squeeze.

"Take care of yourself, Jules," he said and they walked silently downstairs, Juliet holding Regulus's package in her hands and feeling relieved. They stopped in the hall in front of the door and Regulus looked at her for a moment.

"Have a merry Christmas," he said silently and Juliet nodded her head.

"You too, Reg."

Without other words, Juliet left Grimmauld Place and apparated in front of the Potter house. She was greeted with icy wind and snow falling over her, and a snowball hitting her on the back of her head.

Juliet turned around quickly and saw Sirius trying to hide from her while James and Remus openly laughed at the astonished look on Juliet's face. She just shook her head silently while stuffing Regulus's package into her pocket and gathered a pile of snow, murderously forming it into balls and then summoning them all to hit Sirius with her wand. The man yelped as some snow went inside his clothes and Juliet grinned devilishly.

"I have to admit, Regulus does have more manners than you have," she stated lightly and looked at all of the boys. "However, I just dropped by to wish you a merry Christmas and give you your gifts," she stated lightly, hiding away all of the hurt and fear she had felt at Grimmauld Place. Remus seemed to cheer up at the notice and came closer to her.

"Have you been visiting Lily and Severus yet?" he asked from her and Juliet shook her head.

"No, I'm going to Lily next," she told them and Sirius and James grinned at each other. Juliet's eyes flashed open and she could feel laughter bubbling inside her.

"And no, I will definitely not drag you along me. You will have to go meet her yourselves," she stated lightly and Sirius barked a laugh.

"Sure thing, Jules. I can't wait to see the look on Lily's face as this idiot stutters and blushes while giving his gift," Sirius grinned and Juliet couldn't help but to roll her eyes at the young man.

"I better give her a fair warning, then," she muttered sarcastically and James seemed to become annoyed at Sirius.

"Pads, shut up. It's not like you're constantly flirting with Jules," he noted and Sirius jumped at him, pushing him over and into the snow. Remus just shook his head as he turned back to Juliet, who got their gifts from her pocket and gave them to him. Remus summoned some packages from the house and gave them to Juliet.

"Try to keep them away from killing each other, will you? It would be such a tragedy to lose two of the Marauders," Juliet noted slightly and Remus smiled even though he looked extremely weary and tired. Juliet guessed that the full moon was already affecting him.

"Don't worry, Moony: I gave you a lot of chocolate," she leaned closer to the boy and there was a happy look in his eyes.

"Thank you. Have a pleasant rest of the holiday," Remus said and Juliet smiled.

"Same for you. Enjoy your holidays, Pads, Prongs!" she greeted at the two fighting boys and shook her head once more when James pushed Sirius's face into the snow. She apparated silently away from there, close to Lily's house and got ready to meet the muggleborn witch.


	13. Chapter 12: Through The Dark Streets

**A/N**: I've been sick lately, and you can probably notice it from the text. I'm sorry about it, but things are happening and I really don't know how long it will take to get better again. Let's hope it's rather soon, because I already missed three days of school last week and I can't afford to be any more away because I'll get too behind in maths and in chemistry.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Juliet looked around herself in the neighbourhood and felt the magic radiating from a house on the end of the road and slowly walked towards it. It was surprisingly silent in there, seeing as many families living in there must have had children, but Juliet guessed that most of them had went to visit their grandparents for Christmas. She stopped her gloomy thoughts in the beginning and walked bravely towards the house that radiated magic.

She felt nervous about the brick walls that surrounded her, but she did her best not to care about the dark feeling of the city around her. Her steps quickly carried her to the door and she knocked on it three times, waiting patiently for someone to come let her in.

She heard muffled voices from the other side of the door and then a blonde, thin woman looked at her down her nose. "Yes?" she looked down at her and Juliet immediately knew that she didn't like this woman at all.

"Good day. I am looking for Lily Evans," Juliet said as politely as she could, but the woman still looked disgusted at her words. However, she let her come in and Juliet silently looked around herself in the muggle house, listening to the voices coming from living room and the woman led her to the small gathering of people.

Juliet immediately noticed the fat and beef-necked man sitting on the sofa and an elder couple, looking curiously at her. Lily was sitting next to the entrance of the living room and she quickly rose from her chair, taking her into a strong hug. "Lily, you're crushing my ribs," Juliet laughed and the other woman did the same.

"I thought you weren't coming!" the girl was excited and she turned towards her parents. "Mum, Dad, Petunia, Vernon, this is Juliet Adder, a friend of mine from school. Juliet, my mother and my father, my sister Petunia and her fiancé Vernon," Lily quickly introduced her to the other people in the room. Juliet smiled warmly at them.

"It's very nice to finally meet you. Lily has spoken a lot about you," Juliet shook hands with Mr and Mrs Evans and they warmly looked at the young woman in their living room.

"Will you stay for dinner, dear?" Mrs Evans kindly asked from her as Juliet sat down on a chair and she shook her head with a smile on her face.

"I'm sorry I have to decline the offer, but I still have to go meet Severus and give him his gift," she explained and Petunia looked angry at the notice.

"What would you be doing with _that_ man?" she rudely asked from her and Juliet frowned silently, looking at the blonde woman. She noticed how bothered Lily's parents looked and she decided to keep her head calm and not be aggravated by Petunia Evans.

"I have no idea but I hope to dear God it has nothing to do with whiskey," Juliet just shook her head and Lily raised an eyebrow at her.

"You've gotten drunk with him?" she asked and Juliet grinned sheepishly. Lily just shook her head in a disapproving manner, but Juliet noticed how there was a small smile on her lips.

"I just really came to stop by and give Lily her present," Juliet stated lightly and dug the small parcel out of her pocket and gave it to Lily. The young woman thanked her, quickly left the room and came back a moment later, carrying a package with her.

"Merry Christmas, Jules. Don't let him get you into trouble," Lily winked and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"It's usually the other way around, but whatever you say. Merry Christmas, Lily. Also, beware of Potter and Black: they had some plans for you and I am not entirely sure of what they are going to do," she said lightly as Lily walked her to the door and they hugged once more, and then Juliet walked out of the house with a warm atmosphere into the cool weather.

She waved her hand once more for Lily before the other woman closed the door behind her and then looked around, quickly walking towards Spinner's End and feeling anxious inside.

Juliet didn't know what Severus would say of her gift, but she hoped that he would like it. With her steps carrying her towards the darker parts of the town, she looked around herself silently and realised how damp the streets actually were. The houses looked as if they could fall apart any moment and no one seemed to have cleaned the streets in a long while, and Juliet guessed that it was restless in the streets during the night.

Spinner's End was on the other side of a park and she looked silently for the Snape family house. She finally turned her eyes at the gloomiest and darkest building on the whole street and knew where she would be going. It was shocking seeing the difference between herself and Severus: both were Slytherins, both had secrets that they never told others, but the fact that he came from such environment was a wake-up call for her.

Juliet found herself on the front door and knocked on it silently, not really knowing what else to do. There was a moment when she thought no one was going to open the door until it creaked a bit and she looked into the eyes of Severus Snape. A smile rose on her lips and the man answered it silently.

"I thought you might come today," he said relaxed and let her come in. The house seemed to have thousands of books and Severus waited as Juliet left her coat hanging on the coat rack and followed Severus upstairs, holding the young man's hand.

Juliet noticed that even though the house had a gloomy feeling on it, Severus seemed to be comfortable with it. The books on the walls made Juliet feel a bit more relaxed and she sneaked glances at the names of the tomes, trying her very best to understand what kind of books there were in the house. Severus opened a door in upstairs and Juliet looked around herself for a moment, noticing the many Potions journals and the clean environment, and she knew they were in Severus's room.

They sat on his bed and Juliet leaned comfortably against his shoulder, just savouring the moment of silence and peace inside her mind. He was gently brushing his hand up and down her arm, feeling the fabric under his fingers and falling deep into his own thoughts. Juliet sighed happily and pressed her mouth against his neck, kissing it softly.

"Merry Christmas, Severus," she whispered silently against the man's skin and felt the familiar smell of herbs from him in her nose. He sighed softly and Juliet felt her heart beating faster. There was nothing she wouldn't do to be with him for the rest of her life, and at the same time she knew it was impossible.

"Merry Christmas, Juliet," he muttered to her, comforting her from the pain she was feeling inside her.

"It doesn't really feel like Christmas," she sighed tiredly and raised her eyes at Severus, whom was smiling sadly. They held hands, sat on his bed and all that seemed to just remind Juliet of what she was going to lose too soon.

"I don't even want to think about how everything is going to change before next Christmas. There's just so much that can go wrong," Severus rubbed his temples and Juliet looked at the gray cover on the bed.

"I don't want this year to end. I don't want to see how everything changes," she confessed silently and Severus looked sadly into her eyes, leaning close to her and softly kissing her lips. Juliet enjoyed the gentle touch, the small kiss they shared, the silent promises that they gave each other that both of them knew they couldn't keep.

Juliet opened her eyes after a moment and just sat there, close to Severus and silently took his gift from the pocket of the dress and gave it to him. Severus looked silently at the silvery wrapping paper and then smiled at her a soft smile that she knew no one else ever saw.

He gently opened it and a look of shock was engraved on his face. Severus slowly raised his eyes at Juliet whom smiled silently and then lowered them back at the watch. The two silvery snakes coiled around the clock until they settled into the two letters marking his initials. The emerald eyes looked at Severus as the man carefully opened the watch, looking inside and Juliet saw how it was hard for him to breathe.

"This is amazing," he whispered silently and Juliet's smile brightened up a bit.

"I made it for you. The spells and enchantments only allow you and me to open it, and you can hide inside it memories or anything you want to. It also will help you heal if your blood is spilled on it," Juliet told him and the man nodded his head slowly, looking at the silver watch and clearly thinking about it for a moment.

"I've never felt this kind of magic in such a small artifice," he said silently and Juliet closed his hands over the watch. She looked him straight to the eye.

"Take care of it, Severus. It's built directly with my own magic and as long as I am alive, the machinery will work," she spoke with a soft tone. Severus looked directly into her eyes and kissed her softly once more, just letting her feel the happiness and peace radiating from him, and Juliet closed her eyes, melting into the dream that everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you," Severus whispered against her lips and her lips curled silently upwards. She hugged him tightly and his hands drew circles against her back. It felt like she could stay there for the rest of the day, until the day would change and she would have to wake from her dream.

After a moment Severus summoned something and Juliet reluctantly turned around, looking at the gift draped in simple green paper and she stole a glance at Severus whom had draped his arms around her. Juliet silently opened the gift and looked at it for a moment in shock, feeling her heart beating achingly fast against her chest.

"It's beautiful," she whispered silently and looked at the emerald green cloak on her hands. Severus kissed softly her cheek and Juliet silently looked at the cloth in her hands. The fabric felt extremely thin but it also seemed to be very robust, and the touch felt feather light in her fingers. The hood would probably fall in a way to hide her face and the whole design seemed something like she would have picked herself.

"Thank you, Severus," she whispered silently and wiped away the tears in her eyes. She laid her head back down against his chest and was still for a couple of moments, just enjoying the warmth of him. "You always seem to know me better than I do," she laughed silently, and Severus chuckled at the comment.

"I just observe people," he spoke with a tone coloured with kindness and Juliet's eyes fluttered open. The man brushed a curl out of her face and let his fingers feel her face beneath them.

"What do you think of wandering the streets with me?" he asked from her and a smile rose on her lips.

"I'd love it," she confessed and they both smiled simultaneously.

They left Spinner's End only a moment later, both wrapped into warm clothes and Juliet feeling relief inside. It was snowing lightly and the white flakes froze into their hair, forming crowns that would melt later. Both were smiling, both enjoyed the day that they had just for their selves and they enjoyed the silent streets of Cokeworth.

They were walking along the river and Severus looked absentmindedly over it to the other side. "Juliet?" he called her name silently and the woman in question looked at the man, waiting for him to continue. Severus still was staring at the other side of the river.

"When do you think you'll get married?" he asked from her and Juliet bit her lip. She thought about it for a moment and sighed. They stopped and Severus looked deep into her eyes.

"Late June at earliest. I'll try to persuade him into a July wedding so that I'll have a little time to get ready after graduation," Juliet answered silently and Severus nodded his head looking sad. She took his hand into hers and looked into his eyes.

"We still have time, Sev. Six months is a long time," Juliet smiled at him encouragingly, but Severus only stared at the other side of the river. The man just sighed deeply and Juliet frowned as he finally turned towards her. There was a pained look on his face, and it made her realise that not everything was as easy between them that she had hoped it to be.

"Six months is a short time. Six months will pass by in the blink of an eye. Six months pass before we are ready, and then I'll have to let go even though in six months I'll just care more about you than before. I don't know if I'm strong enough to take the pain," he sounded agitated and Juliet stared at him for a moment, trying her very best to calm herself down in front of his eyes. She knew exactly what he meant and it just broke her heart to hear those words coming from his lips.

"I don't want to lose you," she whispered silently and Severus looked at her, sighing another time and he let a hand go through his hair. Juliet couldn't do anything else than just to stare at the man in front of her and wait for the moment when he would have his decision ready.

"I don't want to let go either, but I don't know how long we can go on like this. There is going to be a time when he realises that there is something more than just platonic love between the two of us," he murmured tiredly and leaned his back against a tree. Severus looked like he really didn't know what to do and it pained Juliet to see. It pained her to know that she had caused the problem, that if she had just stayed away from the past they would all live a life much easier to understand than this one.

"Please, Severus. I need you to help me get through this. I can't do this alone," she begged him silently and slowly lowered her eyes, afraid of his actions, afraid of the words he was going to say. She had let him too deep. All the people she let too deep would always cause her pain. There was no other option for it: she was always the one who got hurt.

"I'm not going to let go," he sighed tiredly. "I don't know what this will end up being like, but I can only hope that we will both survive through this war."

Juliet listened silently to the words and couldn't help but to feel like she was letting him down. They both would have to suffer, and she was starting to realise how much they would have to pay for their mistakes.

Most importantly, she was starting to realise that either she or he would die.

* * *

Juliet passed silently through the gates of the cemetery and looked around herself in the dark and silent night. After a moment she walked slowly by the path towards the small chapel between the woods and the graves, inside the tall walls of the bone garden. The old magic was calling her, and she wrapped the green cloak around herself, feeling the coldness of the night numbing her fingers.

The stars shone above her, behind the frost-covered trees and she sighed silently. It was sad that she had to walk through a cemetery on Christmas Night. Christmas was about being together, it was about family and the warmth love brought, but she couldn't do anything else than to walk alone under the starry sky.

Juliet passed the chapel and walked towards the oldest part of the graveyard, where her parents lay under the ground. The white marble statue of a woman greeted her without moving, without saying anything and she bowed to it in respect. The wife of Salazar Slytherin would make sure the dead wouldn't feel restless and the graveyard would be protected from the people wanting to break the peace in there. Juliet silently raised her eyes at her ancestor's face and saw sadness in there, something she had been familiar on those nights she disappeared from her home and went to the cemetery, on those nights when she wandered the woods instead of sleeping. She knew herself better in the dark, and the dark knew her better than anyone else.

Juliet looked silently at the newest headstone on the whole graveyard and sighed sadly. The man and the woman holding hands forever in white marble wouldn't move from their places until the end of time, until all of time had run out and began again. It was weird to look at her parents' faces like she used to remember them, but without any real expression and without the colours she had been so familiar with in her dreams.

The statues were dead, just like they were.

Juliet silently kneeled next to the headstone and then sat down on the cold ground in front of the grave, looking silently at the marble statue. It was eerily silent in the graveyard, and she almost hoped that there would have been any sound at all, just to know that she wasn't alone there. Of course the old memories would keep her company, but she missed someone, something to remind her that not everything was dead.

She looked around herself in the silent graveyard and tried to point out what had changed. Something was different from the last time she had been in there, but she couldn't really remember what it was about. The trees swayed silently in the light breeze and the stars sparkled without emotion above her, and still she felt like she was being watched.

Juliet was starting to slowly panic and she rose back from the ground, taking out her wand from the dress's pocket and keeping it in front of her while trying to find the person that was staring at her. The invisible person seemed to move around her, and her heart started to beat faster and faster,

"Hello?" she called out into the night and scanned the cemetery with her eyes. The marble statues and headstones created shadows crossing each other and the old trees made the place dark enough for someone to hide in the shadows. She turned around, and had to suffocate a scream.

There was a man standing in front of Slytherin's vault. The man's face was covered by a black hood and the blood froze in her veins as she realised that the man was looking straight at her with eyes she couldn't see.

Juliet stared at the man scared for her life and he started to slowly move towards her. She was snapped out of her trance and she quickly turned around and started to run away from the cemetery, away from the old magic that stopped her from apparating away from there. She could hear the heavy footfalls behind her, and it made her feel vulnerable and scared. She was completely alone. No one knew where she was, and she knew that the man would be stronger than her in a close combat.

She sped up towards the rusted gates that never would be fully open neither fully closed. The moon shone over them and Juliet could only hold on to her wand, could only run as fast as she could towards the safe area where she could apparate from there and hopefully leave the man behind her. She could sense the evil magic radiating from her and she just ran, past the old chapel and could feel him grabbing her cloak.

She was grabbed by the waist and they hit the ground, he on top of her. Juliet tried to get away from beneath him, but he didn't let go of her and she could feel the man's anger. For a couple of moments, her heart stopped beating and she could feel her magic reacting violently towards the man. There was a bright light and the man flew away from her, pushed by the light and Juliet quickly grabbed her wand and ran outside the gates, thought about home, and apparated.

* * *

Her hands were shaking.

That was the first thing she noticed back in her own room. She had met Henry downstairs, seeing as the man was there only to grab a book from the smaller library before going to sleep, and she had talked with him for a moment, acting like nothing was wrong. Henry had went to sleep, she had went upstairs, wrapped in her cloak, and ran into her room, trying her very best not to freak out before she was hidden from the sight of the curious eyes.

Right now she was bent over a toilet bowl and throwing up. Juliet still could feel the ice-cold touch on her skin, even through her clothes, and she leaned her head against the cold porcelain. The nausea had passed, but the adrenalin was still pumping through her veins like an addictive drug. The fear she had felt while running for her life had been something she hadn't ever thought to feel again. She had never thought that she would feel the same dark magic surrounding her like a cloud of pain, and she had never though her magic would burst out in a similar way, saving her life.

Juliet silently washed her teeth, trying to get the taste of bile out of her mouth. She looked at her image for a moment, saw her pale face and the staring eyes that used to follow her night after night when the nightmares wouldn't stop. She silently removed the cloak from her shoulders and laid it neatly down, leaning on the sink for a moment and trying to get everything under control again.

_It is fine. Everything is fine._

The tears burned in her eyes as she slowly undressed and looked at the forming bruises on her torso while biting her lip. She knew she'd have to be careful so that no one would see them, so that no one would start to ask questions.

She'd meet Tom the day after the next day. The New Year's Ball was just around the corner. Juliet felt like everything was starting to fall apart, like all the plans they had made wouldn't work, like she would have to pay the price for playing a game she didn't know the rules to.

_It is fine. Everything is fine._

She silently took the brush and pulled it through her hair, opening the knots and looking at her figure in the mirror. Black hair, white skin, red lips, scared blue eyes. She was just a shell of a girl that she used to be. She was just a ghost, like all those statues in the cemetery. There was nothing else to say: they all were so much more alive than her, and she had to live in the shadows, jealous of the things other humans could enjoy. It was not fair.

She stood there silently and lowered the brush on the cabinet. She was just a ghost. She was just a ghost.

Her whole body shook with the cold tremors running on her skin and she walked out of the bathroom, quickly pulling a white nightdress on herself before sitting down on the bed and staring at her hands. They were shaking, and she didn't know how to stop it. She was cold, and she couldn't stop herself from shaking, and she couldn't stop the tears running down her face.

Juliet wrapped the blanket around herself and stared at the ghostly image reflecting from the window.

_It is fine. Everything is fine._


	14. Chapter 13: Something Worth Fighting For

**A/N:** My life is at the moment in chaos. I have extreme pains in my hips, which make sitting literally a huge pain in the arse. I have to write an essay about South African folklore and fairy tales, and I'm having a meeting with my doctor tomorrow. School isn't going as well as I had hoped, but what can you do? At least I can still write.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

In Juliet's opinion, it felt appropriate to rain that day. It was good to see the heavy rain falling on the window, creating soft voices that calmed her down when nothing else could. She had woken up that morning knowing exactly what the day would bring, and she had spent the whole morning just sitting on the window bench in her room, not even reading, just sitting.

She should have felt scared. She should have been afraid of the things taking place on that day, but she found herself just thinking about Christmas Night. She couldn't help but feel that it had been Tom in there, but she knew that it couldn't have been him. The magic had felt different, but she was still feeling worried about it. Who had been following her there?

Her thoughts were interrupted as a house-elf knocked on the door and carefully opened it. Juliet turned her eyes towards Pepper.

"Master Henry and guest waits," the elf squeaked and Juliet nodded her head once, deep in thought. She rose from the bench and the elf apparated probably back into the kitchen, and Juliet walked out of her room. She felt like she was somewhere far away, in another world, in another time, like this was just an elaborate dream. She felt too fragile, too much like a ghost, but her steps carried her to the staircase and she walked downstairs calmly, hearing the two men speaking in the western parlour.

She wondered silently if Tom would start to threaten them this time as she brushed off wrinkles from her gray dress. They stopped speaking as Juliet stepped into the parlour. She looked at both of them for a moment and then sat down on a chair between the two sofas.

"Hello," she said without any real emotion and noticed how Henry glanced at her worriedly, so quickly it was almost impossible to notice. She turned her eyes towards her fiancé and the man looked at her for a moment.

"Good day," the man greeted her and Juliet nodded her head. Henry seemed extremely tense and Juliet knew that her older brother might have done something stupid if she didn't do something quick.

"Did you have a pleasant Christmas?" Juliet asked politely, noticing that the men in the room clearly didn't like each other that much. Tom smiled charmingly at her.

"It was pleasant enough," he just stated and shivers ran through her spine. She did not want to know what the man meant with those words.

"So, shall we begin? We have quite a list to go through," Juliet glanced at both of the men and they nodded their heads silently. Tom took a parchment from his pocket eloquently and Henry silently summoned her and his. The men threw nasty glances at each other and they lowered the lists on the tables. Juliet was already starting to feel frustrated about it all. She sighed silently and looked straight at Tom.

"I want this contract to be so solid that neither of us can break it. That means it won't break if I travel in time or if you have horcruxes or other ways to fool death," Juliet stated and the man narrowed his eyes. He just nodded silently and then spoke.

"I believe it would be easier for you to just read my list of demands and then inform me about which one you will absolutely refuse to fulfil," Tom told her and gave her the list. Juliet stared at him for a moment and then frowned, looking at the parchment in her hands and reading the neat writing.

_Ms Adder and Mr Riddle will live together after the wedding.  
Ms Adder's name shall change to Mrs Riddle.  
Ms Adder will not tell anyone about Mr Riddle's plans regarding the current war.  
Ms Adder will be recognised in front of Death Eater's as Lord Voldemort's wife.  
Ms Adder will not speak about the marriage to any Death Eaters.  
Ms Adder will attend the balls and celebrations Mr Riddle may organise.  
Ms Adder will not be able to hurt Mr Riddle in any way.  
Ms Adder will not have other romantically involved partners during the marriage.  
Ms Adder will be intimate with Mr Riddle at least once a week.  
If Ms Adder gets pregnant, she will not try to abort the foetus and she will tell Mr Riddle about the pregnancy as soon as she is aware of it._

Juliet read through the paper a couple of times and then swallowed slowly. "Henry, get out," she told her brother and Henry frowned.

"Juliet –"

"I really mean it. You don't want to participate in this conversation," she looked pointedly at her brother and he frowned for a moment before finally raising himself from the chair, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. Juliet quickly casted a _Muffliato_ and looked at the paper for a couple of moments before speaking.

"What point do you want to argue about?" the man asked from her with a bored tone and Juliet closed her eyes for a moment. She could feel her blood rushing in her veins and hear her heartbeat in her ears. She had no idea how she could argue the contract to be something she wouldn't hate forever, and she knew that Tom was going to make it extremely hard.

"The part where I will not speak with Death Eaters about this marriage," she said slowly and still stared at the paper. She could feel the change in his mood.

"And why would you want that part changed?" his voice was cold and she felt scared for a moment.

"Because some of my friends are Death Eaters and I want to be able to talk about this all with them," she stated silently. Tom stared at her.

"Whom?"

Juliet was silent for a moment.

"Severus Snape. I think Regulus Black will join you sometime in the future," she muttered and refused to lift her eyes from the paper. Tom was silent for a moment.

"You may speak with them, but with no one else then," he said and Juliet thought about it for a while.

"Deal." They were silent for a couple of moments longer and she gathered her bravery to talk with him about the matter she had thrown Henry out of the room, and she knew Tom was simply waiting for it.

"Do you really think so low of me that I'd get romantically involved with someone when I'm married?" she asked from him and laid the parchment on the table. She straightened her back but still didn't look at Tom, fearing that looking at him would crack the mask on her face.

"I have heard rumours considering you and Severus. Many say that you two are romantically involved, though none have seen you showing it in public," his voice was calm, but Juliet could hear the threat under the surface. She bit her lip and closed her eyes.

"Severus has a crush on me. I try my best to stay neutral," she just stated and sighed. "Can we agree that neither will get romantically involved with anyone else during the marriage?" she suggested.

"Fine by me. Do you want to talk about the amount of intimate times during one month?" he bluntly asked from her and she shook her head.

"If I can't hurt you, I want to make sure that you will protect me from the light side's assaults and attacks," she stated and Tom raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want to be protected by a contract from the assaults of mine?" he asked from her in a surprised tone and Juliet calmly looked at him.

"I know I can only get one protective part for myself in the contract. I'd rather add that neither can kill the other and be protected from the one's that try to kill me than be scared for my life and be protected from you," she stated simply and Tom had a dark look in his eyes. Juliet took in a deep breath and then took Henry's list from the table.

"We've gone through most of my demands already. I just want to clear a few more facts. Neither will be punished if both don't know where the other lives and we live separately. I'll be able to meet my brother and his family and talk with them about anything I want. My brother and his family are going to be untouchable by you and any of the Death Eaters. I also want to make sure I have a word in who are going to be invited to the wedding and that it will not happen before I graduate," Juliet stated and looked at the amused man next to her.

"It will happen so, but I want to make sure you don't try to run away. September 30th is the last day we can get married before you break the contract," he suggested and Juliet nodded her head.

"How about we agree now of the consequences of breaking the contract?" she asked him after a moment of hesitation. He was silent for a moment while he thought about it. Juliet knew they would have to agree on something that wouldn't kill them, but something that they would both be able to take.

"I think that we have to firstly agree that if we break the contract with the other's permission, nothing will happen. Secondly, I think that pain that gets worse every hour is an appropriate punishment," he stated and Juliet thought about it for a moment before nodding her head in agreement.

Juliet rose from her chair and cancelled the spell in the room before walking to the door and opening it for Henry, whom was sitting on the stairs and clearly waiting for the moment Juliet and Tom were done arguing about the contract. He jumped on his feet and walked back into the room where Tom was smugly sitting on the sofa and smiling, and where Juliet looked deep into his eyes, making sure that he was not going to attack her fiancé.

Henry silently gave Juliet a piece of parchment and she started to write everything down, copying every one of their agreements on the paper as they had agreed them while Tom kept an eye on her work. Juliet was biting her lip at the same time as she wrote down the details about the marriage and then finally laid the quill down and let Tom and Henry read the contract.

.

**The Marriage Contract of S.R.J. Adder and T.M. Riddle**

**1. This contract is legally abiding between S.R.J. Adder and T.M. Riddle when as long as both of them are alive. The contract will not be closed if T.M. Riddle dies and has one or multiple horcruxes left or if S.R.J. Adder travels in time.**

**2. The wedding of Ms S.R.J. Adder and Mr T.M. Riddle:**

a) The wedding will take place between July 1st and September 30th 1978 in a place both of the parties accept.

b) The guests are to be decided together.

c) Ms Adder's name shall change to Mrs Riddle.

d) Ms Adder and Mr Riddle will decide later of who will plan the wedding and the details of the event.

**3. The marriage between Ms Adder and Mr Riddle:**

a) Ms Adder will not be able to hurt Mr Riddle in any way. Mr Riddle will protect Ms Adder from any attacks from the light side.

b) Neither will be able to kill the other in the any of the following ways: killing the other themselves; making someone else kill the other; suggesting someone else to kill the other in any way including (but not excluding) manipulation, speaking, writing it on a surface, leaving a mental idea or suggesting it; not trying to save the other's life when possible.

c) Neither will be romantically involved with anyone during the marriage.

d) Ms Adder will be intimate with Mr Riddle at least once a week. If Ms Adder gets pregnant, she will not try to abort the foetus and she will tell Mr Riddle about the pregnancy as soon as she is aware of it.

**4. Additional details:**

a) Ms Adder will not tell anyone about Mr Riddle's plans regarding the current war.

b) Ms Adder shall be recognised as Lord Voldemort's wife in front of the Death Eaters.

c) Ms Adder will not talk about the marriage to anyone else than her brother and his family, Severus Snape and Regulus Black.

d) Ms Adder will attend the balls and celebrations Mr Riddle may organise.

e) Ms Adder will be able to meet her family whenever she sees appropriate. Ms Adder will be able to tell them about the plans of Mr Riddle, but they will not be able to talk about these plans later.

f) Henry Isaac Adder and his family are going to be untouchable by Mr Riddle and the Death Eaters.

g) If one knows not where the other is, they will be punished for living separately.

**5. Breaking the contract without the other's permission will result in pain that will worsen every hour until the one that broke the contract has changed their actions so that they don't break the contract anymore.**

.

Tom nodded his head in approval after reading and let Henry have a look on it. Juliet watched worriedly as Henry frowned while reading through it and approximately halfway through his lips were just a tight line. He, however, didn't comment on any of the conditions in the contract, just gave it back to Juliet and said silently, "If this is what you both agree on, then I am fine with it."

Juliet looked into the similar blue eyes and noticed the worry in them, and she smiled comfortingly. _It is fine. Everything is fine. _Henry pointed his wand at the contract and muttered few spells and then lowered his wand after seeing the glow in the paper. Juliet knew it would be magically binding. She took in a deep breath, dipped the point of the quill into ink and wrote her name on the bottom of the contract.

Tom repeated the action and Juliet felt the bonds forming around them. A bright light wrapped around the two of them and she could feel the magic settling down on the ring on her left hand, making it the manifestation of their marriage. There was no point in trying to hide the ring anymore from anyone: the glamours would no longer hide it, and she knew that there was going to be a lot of gossip about it later at Hogwarts.

"Now that this is cleared, what do you think of publishing our engagement at the New Year´s Ball?" Tom asked from her in a calm voice, clearly trying his very best to get Henry to lose his calmness. Juliet saw how her brother's knuckles turned white, but how he absolutely refused to start yelling at her fiancé.

"If that's what you wish for," she stated with an indifferent voice. Deep inside, she was whimpering.

_It is fine. Everything is fine._

* * *

Juliet looked at the dresses in the attic and silently sat on an old chest while Henry looked around in the low space. It had been years since neither of them had been up there, and it was weird to see the old chests and all the things that had been hidden in the space that only they knew about. Juliet could feel her heart beating faster as her eyes stopped on a photograph of her mother and her father on their wedding day, and she silently turned her eyes back at the dresses.

The newest were exactly her size and Juliet realised how much she had to remind her mother. She had the same facial features as she did, the same dark hair and the same looks on her face, but she had her father's eyes, just like Henry did. It was odd to think about. She looked like her mother even though she could barely remember her voice.

"There are quite a few things hidden in here," Henry stated and snapped her out of her thoughts. Henry had just picked up an old journal and he was skimming through it to get an idea of what it was talking about.

"I saw some questionable jewels back there," he nodded his head towards the other end of the attic, "and it seemed like most of them were cursed, and they certainly didn't like my magic. I'd like to see how they react to you," he said absent-mindedly as he put the journal back and looked at Juliet.

"I think they smelled the lion off you," she teased him and stretched her back. "We should go through all this stuff later. Who knows what we may find?" There was a glimmer in Henry's eyes as he walked to the dresses and looked at them silently.

"This all feels so weird," Henry said after a moment.

"Why?" she asked.

"You're going to get married. I always thought I was the one getting married first," he confessed and Juliet laughed.

"Henry, you still have time. If you are quick, you and Grace may get married earlier than I," she said lightly, completely ignoring the fact that she didn't love her husband and that he would probably end up hurting her many times in the future.

"Maybe," he said as he looked through the dresses. Juliet rose from the chest and glanced through the piles of satin, lace, taffeta and tulle, not really wanting to do that at all. She sighed tiredly while trying to find something to wear for the night, something that she would feel comfortable in but something that wouldn't make Tom angry.

She frowned while looking at a simple, grape purple dress and turned to Henry. "Isn't this Mum's engagement dress?" she asked from him and Henry looked at the dress, frowning for a moment.

"I think it is," he said, but Juliet could easily deduce that Henry was not sure at all. She took the dress into her hands and then held it down her body, and her brother looked at her frowning and looking considerate.

"You can hide a knife under the dress, and no one would notice it," he said after a moment and Juliet nodded her head. The dress wasn't too complicated and it would look nice with her bridal jewels, and she made her decision.

"I think I'll be sentimental and put this one on," she smiled at Henry and they made their way back to the third floor, and then walked back on the second. Juliet laid the dress on the bed back in her room and Henry stayed by the door, watching at his little sister.

"Are you sure you can handle the ball all by yourself?" Henry asked worriedly from her and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"Yes Henry, I can handle a stupid ball where I have to dance with a man that I have no will to spend time with. No, I won't let them hurt me and yes, I'll be back home by midnight," she muttered at him sarcastically and sat on the stool in front of the dressing table, brushing her hair open and looking at Henry from the mirror while quickly composing her hair into a ponytail on the back of her head.

"You don't have to worry about me. There are a ton of protective spells on the jewels and I know enough about fighting to keep myself safe even while wearing ridiculous dresses one can't run in," she reassured him, but the frown still stayed on his face.

"Are you sure about this?" he sounded worried and Juliet sighed while doing her hair.

"I am. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," she smiled at the mirror, meeting his eyes on it and he nodded his head defeated, leaving Juliet to get ready for the ball.

Juliet quickly finished working with her hair and put on some light make up, something she never normally used. It was weird to see the difference a little lipstick could do, and she didn't like the change. Juliet had never been one for to take hours in front of the mirror, as she had usually just enjoyed sleeping in rather than trying to make herself look pretty for someone else. She just didn't see the point in it knowing that it was only artificial beauty and that the outside didn't tell anything about the person inside.

She glanced at the clock on the table and noticed that she had over an hour left. It was enough time for her to put on the dress, look for shoes she could actually dance in and look for a warm winter cloak. She guessed the Malfoys would have spelled snow on the grounds around the manor, and she guessed they would try to impress anyone and everyone.

Juliet rose from the stool wand walked in her closet, quickly choosing shoes and then undressing herself from the comfortable jumper and pants she had had on. She stood in the middle of her room in her underwear before quickly pulling the dress on, charming the laces on the back to tighten it around her body and putting on the high heels. Juliet sat back on the stool, opened the jewellery box and carefully lifted the diadem from there. She lowered it on her head, balancing it on her forehead and looked at her image.

She could already see the difference. She was no longer Juliet Adder, the young woman who enjoyed reading books and running in the woods, the scent of winter in the air, but she was Juliet Riddle, the mysterious and strong pureblood woman who was going to be Lord Voldemort's wife.

She quickly put on the rest of the jewels, no longer looking at her image in fear of noticing how it all was starting to change. _It is fine. Everything is fine. _She summoned a black velvet cloak from her closet, lifted the skirt in order to put on a garter and then putting her wand and a dagger inside it, against her skin before walking out of the room. She stopped on the top of the stairs, straightened her pose and then walked down the stairs with her cloak in her hands.

Henry was in the great room and Juliet joined him there. His brother smiled tensed and then gave a simple ring, putting it on her right hand. "If someone tries to hurt you, just say my nickname for you and it will bring you back home," he promised her and Juliet smiled gently at her brother and took him into a tight hug.

"I love you, Henry," she muttered against his chest and Henry tightly gripped her.

"I love you too, little menace. Be careful," he whispered and let go of her. Juliet smiled bravely before putting her cloak on, turning and walking away from the room. She opened the door into the cool night, closed it behind her and silently apparated in front of the gate of Malfoy Manor.

There was a tiny house-elf whom looked scared when it bowed in front of her. "Miss is welcome! Dobby is to take miss to master!" the elf squeaked and opened the gate for her, leading the way towards the huge manor house. Juliet sighed inwardly when seeing the white peacocks and the excessive decorations outside, knowing that Lord and Lady Malfoy had too much money and too little common sense in terms of knowing how much was too much.

The elf looked absolutely terrified of the situation while leading Juliet towards the house and she counted silently inside her head the steps, calming her bubbling mind and pulling on the mask she had to use in front of her fiancé. The elf opened the grand door and let her step into the large hall before disappearing for a moment, probably to announce her arrival, and it popper back just a moment later. Juliet gave her cloak to the small creature and it disappeared from the hall only seconds before a tall, blond man walked into the room whit a fake smile on his lips and a beautiful wife on his arm.

"Ah, Miss Adder! It is a pleasure to finally meet you," the man said with a voice trained to impress and flatter other people. A fake, perfectly practiced smile rose on her lips as she took offered her hand and Lord Malfoy pressed his lips on it.

"The pleasure is all mine, sir, lady. I am grateful for your time. Please, call me Juliet," she smiled sweetly at Lady Malfoy, who answered her smile.

"If we may call you Juliet, then you must call us by our given names. I am Narcissa and this is my husband, Lucius," Lady Malfoy said out loud and Julie nodded her head. "Come, our lord is waiting for you in the ballroom," Narcissa called her and Juliet followed them through the maze-like house. She made sure to remember every turn and memorise the way back to the front door in case something happened.

There weren't many people in the grand ballroom. Juliet did however notice and dark-haired man turning towards them, and Lucius and Narcissa stopped in front of him, bowing at him. Juliet repeated the action and he chuckled darkly.

"Lucius, Narcissa, I see you have already met Juliet Adder," the man gestured her to join him by his side and Juliet obeyed the silent command, taking her place by his side, but still acting submissively. She could see the feint shock in the Malfoys' eyes and she lowered her eyes at the floor, nervously biting her lower lip.

"Juliet, you certainly look very beautiful," Tom commented silently and Juliet looked at him coyly, not letting her feelings show in her eyes.

"Thank you, my lord," she simply answered. The man didn't comment on her choice of words and she knew it was how she was to address him in public without any other comments.

Juliet took in a deep breath and tied the laces of her mask.

_It is fine. Everything is fine._


	15. Chapter 14: Until The Day Awakes

**A/N: **I am extremely stupid for leaving this chapter's writing on the last day. At least I finished my history essay. I'll have exams very soon, and I'm going to have to read for them a lot, so let us wish I have enough time to work on the next chapter while reading world history next weekend and European history the following weekend.

Also, I just want to point out I still don't have a beta reader and I rarely reply any reviews due to my brain fog. Sorry about it. At least brain fog is better than constant pains.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Juliet had managed to slip out of the part for a moment, find a way outside and she stood silently, leaning against a railing and stared at the pure whiteness of the gardens. It was a surreal feeling to know that her engagement party was happening just inside and that she was completely alone in the silence. The moon wasn't entirely full: a part of it was missing, and Juliet felt like the moon could understand her in a very peculiar way.

The blue light of the night made her look eerie and ethereal. Juliet silently looked down at her hands and felt the heating charm slowly losing its strength. She had been standing there only for a couple of minutes yet those minutes seemed to be eternity and at the same time, they were nothing.

She silently wondered about that evening, thinking about all of the things that would change. It seemed that after the clock struck twelve, nothing would be the same anymore. Next year she was going to get married. This year she had fallen in love. Next year she would have to live through more pain and more sorrow and know she'd never feel the same again.

"I suggest you come inside soon. I was thinking about announcing our engagement before the year changes," she heard a bored voice from behind her and sighed silently. Her breath was frozen and she wished she could fade away just like the mist she was breathing into the blue light.

She could feel his presence still lingering there as she looked at the frozen trees forming webs of ice and darkness. "Can I have just a little moment more?" she asked silently from him and could feel the disapproving mind behind her.

"Why would you need more time?" he simply asked from her, impatiently. Juliet could hear the differences in his voice. She guessed many were so afraid of him that they never would listen to the slight changes. It was a weird thought.

"I don't even know," she confessed. "Everything is just a bit surreal right now."

He walked closer to her, standing just behind her back. His body's heat warmed her and she noted that she felt cold, colder than she should have felt. He simply wrapped his arms around her, as if he owned her. It was always going to be the same. He would own her. He would use her as he liked, and she could not find a way out.

_Henry used to say there was always a way out_, she thought silently. _Maybe even he knows now it is a lie. Maybe it was just false hope all along._

"Does this happen often to you?" he asked from her, his tone masked with indifference even when she could hear he was curious about it. Juliet lowered her eyes and looked at her hands resting on the railing. The light made her seem see-through.

"Derealisation?" her tone was flat. She felt like nothing really existed. She felt like the hands around her were not there, like his breath tickling her neck was not there. She felt like she wasn't there. "Not that often," she lied calmly, just like she lied to Henry. Even he couldn't detect her lies. There was no chance he would detect them. He would listen to the words just like everybody else and not notice how hard it was becoming for her.

She wished that just that one time, only that one time, they would catch her lies.

He didn't notice.

"Let's go back inside. I have a feeling that they will want to ask questions soon," Tom said out loud and let his grip loosen. The man gave his arm to her and she took hold of it silently, without any emotions showing on her face. She knew the consequences, but she was already too deep to stop playing the game. There was no other choice than to keep on going and pray that one day she could just fall asleep without remembering all the mistakes she was doomed to make during her life.

Tom guided her back into the ball room, and at the same time, inside her head a thousand voices argued with each other. It was horrible to listen to them, horrible to know that all those voices were created by her yet she had no control over them. It was horrible to have that smile plastered on her face, horrible to look so happy when inside she just wanted to cry, horrible to be with the man that was behind all of those sleepless nights she had been through in her life. She said nothing. She never said anything when it came down to the things that mattered the most. She had learned a long time ago that it didn't matter, not anymore.

Tom's mood changed into the cool demeanour he always wore in his Dark Lord persona. Juliet watched it change in a matter of moments, the very few moments before they were back in the ball room. He looked stoic, like an unknown god and she was attached to his arm. She followed him deep inside the room, not even caring about the looks she was receiving. She just stood next to him on the podium as he started to speak.

"My friends," he greeted his followers and Juliet inwardly laughed at it, "it is very pleasant to see so many of you in here tonight. I must admit that I am most pleased of the amount of people in this ball." He smiled charmingly at them, and Juliet avoided looking into anyone's eyes. She couldn't take the jealous and arrogant looks she was receiving from the Death Eaters' and their familiars.

"As many of you have already noticed, beautiful Miss Juliet Adder had been my escort this evening. I must confess I am a bit disappointed of the lack of respect you have shown towards her," the sweet smile never left his lips and Juliet kept telling herself the lies she had told herself too many times already. _It is fine. Everything is fine._

"Miss Adder and I have had a few private meetings this year and I am happy to announce the result of these meetings." _It is fine. Breathe deep and smile, Juliet. Everything is just fine. No one is going to hurt you. It is fine. Everything is fine. Breathe. You have survived through worse. Breathe. Smile. Everything is fine._

"We shall get married this following year."

The ball room was dead silent for a few moments when the message sank in the people in the room. Juliet could feel Severus's presence in the back of the room and she bit her inner cheek in attempt to keep on the smile. Slowly, the Death Eaters started to clap at the news and Juliet lowered her eyes, taking a deep breath and knowing it was already almost over. The Dark Lord silenced the room after a moment and looked at the Death Eater's calmly, his demeanour kept tightly on a leash.

"I expect you to treat my fiancée with the respect she deserves. I will not turn a blind eye on any attacks against her safety and I certainly won't ignore any romantic gestures towards her." Juliet could feel the coldness in his voice waiting beneath the surface. She knew he was warning them as much as he was warning her to act like the perfect wife. If she was to disobey any of his commands, he was the one to punish her. The thought made cold shivers run down her spine, but she calmly ignored them and looked through the ball room, meeting Severus's eyes just for a moment before passing on.

He stepped down from the podium and offered his hand for her, helping her come down. It was a sweet gesture, something you wouldn't have expected from the Dark Lord, but it made the message clear for his follower's: she was out of limits and he would notice any disobedience they would try to pass through while touching her immunity. She returned back to her position, being attached to his arm and stood next to him as the Death Eaters came closer and greeted her properly and wished them good luck with their marriage. It was simply ironic. The same people Juliet had hated most of her life were now going to protect her while she lived in a loveless marriage.

Three older wizards came towards them and she felt pressure on her chest as she looked at them, remembering the faces from fifteen years earlier. They looked like they did not like the situation at all, but like they had to obey the Dark Lord's orders so they wouldn't be killed. They looked at her like she was just scum, like she wasn't worthy of being next to the Dark Lord.

"Our lord, we wish to congratulate you of your engagement," the first of the three men bowed his head at his Lord and Juliet could feel the anger rising inside her fiancé.

"Mr Owen, how nice of you to say such things when you clearly do not mean them," the Dark Lord practically purred and Juliet lowered her eyes, already knowing what was going to happen. She looked away because she didn't want another set of memories linked at her endless nightmares. Her fiancé had his wand on his hand before anyone could even blink and he had casted the wordless Cruciatus curse so quickly no one barely had time to understand the situation before the man was already lying on the ground and screaming in pain. Juliet blocked it out of her mind, taking in a shaky breath and ignoring the looks the Death Eaters were showing on their faces.

The Dark Lord lifted the curse after half a minute of agonising screams. "Did I not just state that Miss Adder was off limits?" he asked with a cold tone, clearly not even waiting for an answer. "I do understand that the concept may be hard for you to understand, but when I give orders, you obey them, not even questioning them once," his voice was sadistic and Juliet made sure she didn't look at the man's face even by accident. She focused on the stone floor, trying her very best to ignore the hard grip of her arm.

"This is my last warning to every single one of you. The next one to disobey my orders will lose their life," he stated with a voice that was calm once again. The man shakily rose from the ground and Juliet didn't look into his direction. He silently muttered his apologies and disappeared from the scene, leaving others to come congratulate the pair.

It was hard for her to keep on a neutral look as Severus came to congratulate them. Juliet looked into his eyes only once and nodded her head in silent understanding, and her repeated the gesture, bowing his head for the Dark Lord. She could feel everyone watching the silent exchange, but Tom seemed pleased enough. When it seemed like everyone had given their congratulations, Tom guided her back outside, and the others followed them in silent submission. Dozens of house-elves popped between the guests and gave them glasses of wine as the Dark Lord looked through his ranks and as Juliet held on to the glass, listening to her future husband speaking.

"For us," he simply stated as he raised a toast and everyone mirrored it. They silently lifted the glasses on their lips and Juliet couldn't help but notice how the clock struck twelve times the exact moment she swallowed the mouthful of wine.

She slowly turned to look at the man next to her. "Happy New Year, my lord," she spoke to him with a voice stronger than she felt inside. The man looked at her amusedly.

"Happy New Year, dear Juliet," he looked into her eyes and she didn't turn her eyes away. The man looked pleased of the fact that she could act so calmly in such situation. Juliet let her mind wander and turned her eyes silently away, looking over the gardens.

"I should probably return back home before my brother gets too worried," she spoke so silently that no one else could hear her words. The Dark Lord nodded his head.

"He doesn't seem to trust me too much," he noted with an indifferent voice. Juliet knew it was real; he really didn't care about the fact.

"He doesn't really trust anyone else than myself and his companion," Juliet shrugged silently and Tom looked mildly surprised.

"I wasn't aware of the fact he was courting someone," his tone was light, but Juliet could hear the interest in the voice too clearly. It was simple enough for her to read him and to play their game without showing him her real feelings.

"He is a very private person," Juliet said and Tom nodded his head. He gave his hand to her and she held onto it silently as the man guided her through the Malfoy mansion towards the main door. They both were silent and Juliet was starting to feel a bit less surreal the further away she was from the Death Eaters.

"Shall you go home during the Easter holidays?" Tom asked while they were getting closer to the door and Juliet silently looked at the man.

"I think so. You're asking this because you want to meet me then, don't you?" she sighed tiredly and they stopped in the entrance hall.

"Yes. I believe we have a wedding to plan," he looked at her and Juliet felt like hitting her head into the wall, repeatedly. She sighed tiredly and rubbed her temples, brushing the diadem resting on her head.

"How big of a wedding were you planning on?" she asked from him and he raised an eyebrow at the frustrated look on her face.

"Nothing too big. Roughly two hundred guests," he stated and Juliet looked at the roof for a moment, trying her very best to not roll her eyes or to hit her head into the wall.

"Let's talk about this later. It's far too late to get a huge headache," she shook her head silently and then leaned closer to him, kissing his cheek quickly. A house-elf came into the entrance hall and gave Juliet her cloak, and she looked at Tom for a moment.

"I'll see you on the Easter holidays, then," she nodded her head. Tom simply looked at her as she walked out of the mansion, into the cool night and she wrapped the cloak around herself tightly. Juliet let her thoughts roam free as she walked outside of the gate, looked one last time at the Malfoy manor and disapparated.

Juliet saw the light on the small library's window and quickly walked inside her own home, tiredly opening the door and removing the cloak and the shoes. She carried them on her left hand as she walked into the small library, sat on the sofa next to her brother and looked at him.

"They know now," she said silently and Henry nodded his head. He took her into a warm hug and Juliet closed her eyes, just wishing to fall asleep.

"He wants to talk about the wedding when I come home for Easter. I'm not sure if I even want to have a part at planning it," she muttered against his shoulder as he held her.

"Breathe, Juliet. You don't have to get worried about this all. I know you can get through this," he murmured encouragingly at her and Juliet closed her eyes as she pressed herself closer to Henry. Her older brother gently patted her back.

"We'll get through this all. There is always a way out even when it seems like there isn't," he promised her and Juliet felt the pain inside her chest as she listened to the words of her brother. She wanted to believe them, she wanted them to be true, but she felt like there was no hope left. She was tired of the constant fighting that seemed to be so pointless at that point. She was so tired of it all.

"I don't want to get married to him," she whispered tiredly, and Henry hugged her tightly for a moment before letting her go and looking into her eyes. Juliet simply stared back, wishing there was something they could do.

"Go to sleep. Things will look different in the morning," Henry smiled, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Juliet nodded her head apathetically and rose from the sofa, taking her cloak and shoes into her hands and carried herself upstairs into her room.

Only inside there she let the tears fall into her cheeks. She silently raised the hem of the dress, took the wand and the dagger from beneath it and lowered them on the dressing table, staring into her tearful eyes in the mirror. She felt like she was a thousand years old, like she had lived through far too many things to live in such young body. The nightmares would haunt her that night, and she wouldn't be able to sleep properly if not at all. She would wake up the next day, pack her things and return to Hogwarts like nothing had changed when everything had changed.

Juliet closed her eyes for a moment and took in a couple of shaky breaths. _It is fine. Everything is fine. _She looked back at the mirror and silently wiped her face clean from the tears and the makeup that made her look like someone she wasn't. _There's no need to cry. Everything is fine. Everything will be fine._

She wished she could just fall asleep and never wake up again into the nightmare she had been living in for over fifteen years. She wished she could finally sleep.

* * *

Juliet spent the next morning and day packing up her things and trying to decide what to bring back to Hogwarts before she would come back home for the Easter holidays. She was frowning at the photo album she had found at the attic and wondered if seeing the pictures of her family would help calming her down even a tiny bit during the nights when she wished just to die. Maybe seeing their faces would remind her that she wasn't alone. Maybe seeing their faces would remind her of the fact that most of them were already dead. She sighed tiredly and then lowered the book on her bed, tracing the edge of the ring silently.

The Slytherins were going to act differently around her, that was for sure. The news of her being engaged to the Dark Lord had certainly reached them already and she wondered if the Slytherin house was smart enough to keep those news in their small circles. She did not want to even try to explain the situation to her Gryffindor friends, nor talk about it at all. She just wished she could forget the impending marriage and enjoy the last year of her education, laugh with her friends and act like nothing was going to change even when she knew who were going to die too soon.

She absent-mindedly looked at the dagger resting on her dressing table and wondered for a moment if it was a good idea to start carrying it on her every waking minute. The teachers were bound to ask questions if she decided to do so and forgot to hide it, but she would feel even a bit more confident with it. After all the things that happened during the Yuletide, she wasn't sure if it was even save for her to leave her home ever again. The mysterious man at the cemetery, the Dark Lord announcing their engagement, the fact that Juliet had spent most of the Christmas Eve with Severus... All of those things could endanger her. She knew that Tom was happy with Severus for now, but she did not know how long it would last. She didn't want to even guess the consequences he might come across later in time.

Juliet put the dagger inside the scabbard and laid it down on the top of her trunk. It was a good thing to be cautious around the Slytherins. Some of them might carry grudges, and she wasn't stupid enough to think that they were smart enough to actually understand the ways Tom could torture them if they were stupid enough to attack her.

She closed the lid of the trunk and then sat on her bed, playing worriedly with the chain around her neck. The watch had replaced the time-turner one and a half years prior and yet it felt strange to not have the silvery time-turner around her neck. She had been familiar with the magic radiating from the time-turner and she missed it. After six years of constantly carrying the time-turner around her neck, it felt odd to carry a clock and not something that radiated the magic of her family.

Henry had always said that their magic was suited with working on complicated mechanisms. Juliet only now started to understand what his brother had meant: she couldn't only see the complicated patterns under every mechanism, but she could also see the complicated situations like they were clockwork, something she knew how to handle. She knew how to solve riddles, but the riddles in her life were becoming too big for her to solve alone. There was always a solution to every riddle, yet she no longer understood the riddles. It was tiring to constantly solve puzzles one didn't have enough pieces to, and she just hoped that one day she would have all the pieces.

In just over four months she would turn eighteen. In six months she would finish school and graduate. In nine months she would be married. It was a possibility that she would have a child during the next three years she would know where her fiancé lived, when she would live with him. It all seemed to happen too fast and she wondered if she could stop into those days when everything seemed to happen without a rush, if she could return to the previous summer before they arrived at that time. Maybe she could save the feeling of peace back inside her mind, return to the calmness she had been used to. Maybe she could preserve those days in the back of her mind, inside her Occlumency walls where nobody else could reach them and destroy them. The thought was tempting.

Juliet sighed as she rubbed her temples, wishing for the headache to be gone. It all was making her feel anxious and restless, and she was starting to feel the weight of it all coming down. She didn't know if she would last until the summer until she had a mental breakdown, until her Occlumency shields failed her and she was let with the feeling of emptiness and the sadness building itself stronger inside her own mind. She didn't want to give into them, not then, not ever. She had been hiding everything inside her head for fifteen years, never trying to even go through it all, and she knew that one day she would have to face them. She would have to face the problems, and she was scared to death of it. She wasn't strong enough nor was she brave enough. She needed someone else, yet she could never talk about those things to anyone else. It broke her heart to just hear her own thoughts, and she kept burying them deeper into herself until she was feeling numb, until she felt unreal and faded away from the world she was trying to live on. It would get only worse, and she knew it too well. She didn't want to break, and yet she was going to.

The question simply was, how long it was going to take. Would she break before the graduation ceremony, before her wedding, before her husband was going try kill Harry Potter? She hoped not. She hoped she could take three years more pain inside her and hide them, and that after those three years she would be strong enough to finally work on getting her sanity back.

She stopped thinking about it as someone knocked on her door. Henry opened it a bit and looked at her carefully. "Will you go back to Hogwarts this evening or tomorrow morning?" he asked from her and Juliet lifted a smile on her face, pushing all the things troubling her mind away. It wasn't the right time to worry about such things. She would have to spend time with her brother and be happy, and then she would go back to Hogwarts and take the jealous and admiring looks of the Slytherins, the hurt and the pain of Severus, and the questioning and wondering looks of her Gryffindor friends. She smiled as she looked at Henry, and she knew that her was one of those people she could always count on. The thought simply made her happy.

"Tomorrow morning. I don't want to leave quite yet. I still have to make your hair a bit more grey," she grinned devilishly and Henry laughed, and just like that, she shut down the emotional part of her mind and took her brother's hand, leaving her room and the thoughts behind.


	16. Chapter 15: Time Is On Your Side

**A/N: **Oh hurray. As I am writing this author's note, I have yet to read for my exams this week. Bugger. I still have two weeks left of school, then there's my brother's graduation party and as you can guess, I have been made a slave in my own home. Gosh. Two more weeks and then I can sleep...

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

The next morning Juliet said goodbyes to her brother, took her trunk and apparated outside of Hogwarts gates. The caretaker, Filch, was guiding the students through the gates back into the castle and Juliet showed the man the piece of parchment her brother had signed for her. The man grunted something unintelligent and let her pass through, and sooner than she noticed, she was back in the Slytherin dungeons, being hugged by Severus and Regulus and leaving her trunk at her room, joining the boys in their mission to go outside and have a huge snow fight with the Gryffindors.

Juliet enjoyed the time with her friends playing in the snow, but at the same time, the darker part of her emotions was keeping a close eye on the situation. When she outwardly smiled at people and ignored the pointed looks of the other Slytherins, inside she was feeling tired and wary of anything and everything.

In the end, the great snowball fight between the four houses ended in the defeat of Slytherin when the other houses ganged up against them and the Slytherins fled back inside the castle, laughing and joking around. The Christmas holidays had certainly eased the spirits, but Juliet knew that as soon as they all were back inside the Slytherin dungeon, they all would start to ask her questions. She grimaced inwardly and wondered if it was already too late to run into the Room of Requirement.

"Did you have fun in the party?" Regulus suddenly asked from her and Severus and they glanced at each other quickly. Juliet shrugged silently.

"It could have been worse. At least I wasn't forced to dance," Juliet told Regulus silently and the boy coughed in order to hide his laugh. Juliet narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

"When you start to dance in high heels and ridiculous dresses I will start enjoying doing so," she pouted and Severus just shook his head.

"Don't give him any ideas. He might actually listen to you once," Severus teased the younger boy and Regulus just snorted.

"That was only once and I was drunk. Merlin, Snape, don't you ever forget anything?" Regulus just sighed and Juliet looked questioningly at Severus. The man was smirking and he winked at Juliet. 'I'll tell you later,' he mouthed at her and Juliet smiled and felt relaxed as they rounded the last corner before the blank wall in front of the Slytherin dungeons.

"What's the new password?" Juliet asked from the boys and they quickly glanced at each other.

"I swear I had nothing to do with it," both said simultaneously and she raised an eyebrow, waiting for one of them to actually speak the password. Severus looked at Regulus who nervously glanced at the wall and the other Slytherins at their back, clearly waiting for the boy to mutter the password.

"Regulus, I promise not to hex you," Juliet rolled her eyes and the boy still looked very nervous when he finally opened his mouth.

"They found your family crest," Regulus said carefully and Juliet felt like banging her head to the wall.

"Oh please don't say what I think you will," she just muttered and stared at the roof.

"The new password is 'tempore istinc'," Regulus muttered and Juliet actually felt the need to hit her head to the wall so strong that only Severus's frown kept her on her place.

"Time is on your side?" he asked confusedly and Juliet just shook her head.

"It's better than 'carpe diem'," she said silently, but Severus frowned at the young woman. They slipped into the common room and Juliet sat down on a leather sofa, rubbing her forehead with her fingers and trying to ease the headache that was forming. The Slytherins had chosen her family crest as their password and she just really wanted to bang the person's head into the wall and possibly do the same for herself after she was done with the idiot.

None of them even vaguely understood what it meant. None of them could even realise what the family crest meant to the generations of watchmakers, for the generations of Adders that had started to build clocks in the 12th century. No one understood how much message those two words carried with them. None of them were watchmakers. None of them knew how time worked.

Severus noticed the grim look on her face. He tried to reach her eyes, but Juliet refused to look into his. "Is everything alright?" he asked from her after a moment and Juliet just shook her head silently.

"I am fine," she muttered angrily and Regulus noticed the look on her face. Juliet could feel her hands shaking and she silently balled her hands into fists and then opened them again, trying to control the anger. "I would have thought that this house understood to not disrespect anyone's family, but I find myself once again amazed by how idiotic you all can be," her words were poisonous and the Slytherin quieted down, looking at her confusedly.

"What do you mean? It's just a password," Mulciber said confusedly and Severus groaned inwardly. He could sense the rage inside Juliet and the words that the young man had just said were not helping the situation at all.

"Just a password? _Just a password?_" Juliet's voice turned into a whisper as he stared at Mulciber and Severus could feel the angry magic in the air. It wrapped around everyone and younger students seemed worried of the situation.

"Those words have run down in my family for almost eight hundred years. Those words are what define us, they are what are whispered to every child ever since they are born, carved into everyone's clocks when they are mature enough to understand what it means, explained to the significant other on their wedding day. Those two words aren't just words. They are _everything_ there is left of our family," her whispers were frighteningly cold, and Severus felt like he was staring at the Dark Lord. Juliet slowly rose from the sofa and walked to Mulciber, taking a stern hold of the young man's chin and made him to stare into her eyes.

"They are in our blood,"she whispered to the young man, her magic finally getting out of control and everyone was pushed on the walls and on the floor around her. Juliet looked at them all with narrowed eyes and Severus slowly rose from the floor, looking into her eyes and feeling a trail of blood on his face. He couldn't see the Juliet he had known ever since September, and he was scared of the woman standing in front of him.

"Change the password or I'll make you all regret this choice," she whispered her warning at them and turned on her heels, walking out of the common room with grace that seemed to be extremely familiar for her. Everyone was left to stare behind her. Not even Severus dared to follow her.

They let her walk out of there.

* * *

Juliet came back into the common room way past midnight. Severus and Regulus were anxiously waiting for her to return and as she sat silently on the rug in front of the fireplace, both of the men came to her and wrapped their arms around her. Juliet closed her eyes and pressed her head onto Severus's chest and was silent for a couple of moments.

"I don't know how long I can take this anymore," she whispered silently and Regulus rubbed circles into her back. Severus kept her close, and her hair was covering her face. The others didn't matter at the moment. They couldn't hear the silent words she let out. They couldn't understand why she was screaming underneath.

"We'll get through this all," Severus promised her and her entire body started to shake with the tears she was holding back. He wished he could make her feel better. He wished she didn't need to marry a man that she was so clearly afraid of. He closed his eyes and tried his best to not to cry himself.

"We'll keep you safe, okay? We won't let him hurt you. You're our friend," Regulus muttered comfortingly and Juliet's shaking stopped. Severus could still feel her emotions underneath the surface and it hurt him so much to know just what she had been hiding from everyone else for so long already. It killed him to know that she would break.

"I'm so sick of this war," her fragile voice crept into Severus's ears and the man thought about their choices for a moment. He knew the others were watching and he was scared of the consequences. He pulled Juliet up and the girl didn't even raise a finger against him, and he and Regulus dragged her into her own room. Severus closed the door behind them and then helped Juliet sit down on the bed, and the young woman stared at the floor.

"He's going to kill us," she stared blindly in front of herself and Severus and Regulus exchanged a quick glance she didn't seem to notice. "The contract will stop him from killing me, but I think he's going to make me kill myself." Her words lacked of the passion she used to speak with, and Regulus sat down on her bed, wrapping his arms around the young woman.

"We'll just find a way out, then," he promised the woman and Juliet closed her eyes.

"Do you trust me?" she asked silently from them, and Severus sat down on her other side, taking her hand into his. He gently rubbed it and Juliet slowly looked into his eyes.

"I'd count my life on you," he confessed.

"So would I," Regulus promised, and a faint smile tried to crack into her lips, and it failed. She looked miserable and tired and like she really needed someone right then, like she really needed someone to be with her for that night.

"I'm so sorry for dragging you into this with me," she whispered tiredly and Severus gently patted her back.

"We had already dragged ourselves into this all, Jules. We know the risks. I think that if we keep together, we can survive through this war," Severus smiled at her and Juliet smiled fragilely at them both.

"Will you stay tonight?" she asked them, and Severus and Regulus grinned at each other.

"Well, it's not every day a beautiful girl asks two men to stay with her for the night," Regulus winked. He was soon hit on the head with a pillow, and Severus laughed, taking Juliet into his arms and tickling her until she begged for mercy.

They fell asleep together in a pile of tangled limbs.

* * *

The news of her engagement ran through the school like wildfire. First it was the Slytherins that tried to question her about the ring, then the Hufflepuffs, then the Ravenclaws and finally even the Gryffindors. Juliet never told them about her fiancé, but the Slytherins knew already. For the other houses she just lied that her fiancé lived in Sweden and that she would move there when it was the time, and they seemed to accept the lie without even questioning her about it all. Some were curious why she had never mentioned about it, and Lily often looked at her as if she didn't quite believe her lies, but Juliet kept her feelings under the surface and slowly the student population stopped gossiping about the sudden engagement.

Most of them seemed to believe that it had been someone from Durmstrang. Some thought that she was actually engaged to either Severus or Regulus, but those rumours stopped running around quite quickly when they never saw Juliet showing any romantic gestures around either of the men. Some thought she actually wasn't engaged to anyone and that she just kept the ring on her finger because it was a tradition in their family, but Juliet never commented on the rumours. She just kept calm and talked to Severus and Regulus as if the curious students weren't even there.

January passed on with the student body stirring, and then at the beginning of February, they seemed to accept the fact that she wasn't going to talk about her fiancé. Juliet couldn't quite understand why the student population gossiped so much about such matter, and she expressed it to Regulus and Severus quite often. Both of the men just smiled at each other and didn't mention how almost everyone seemed to respect her and know her and most of the male population fancied her. Sometimes, Juliet was extremely oblivious for a Slytherin, but they never commented on the fact in fear of her hexing them into oblivion.

Valentine's Day was coming on and when Regulus lightly commented on the matter, Juliet just groaned and changed the topic quickly. Severus shook his head every time smiling, knowing that Juliet was not enjoying the chance of the whole school sending her gifts laced with Amortentia. Many were asking her out on a date for the weekend before Valentine's Day, and she always declined their offers politely, subconsciously rubbing on her ring. She was afraid of the chance that the contract would think of their requests as her romantic behaviour, and she tried to keep good relationships to everyone all the while worrying herself to death.

When she finally woke up in the morning of Valentine's Day, Juliet actually groaned and tried to bury herself under the blanket until she realised it would create too many questions if she didn't rise that day. Grimly, she rose from her bed, had a shower and dressed up on the school uniform before sitting down on her bed for a moment while braiding her hair. Her thoughts ran in circles and she was worried of the gifts she would probably receive. Right before she opened the door she realised that Tom might actually send something for her, and she actually banged her head against the door for a couple of times while realising that the man would most probably send her something extremely expensive and that would show everyone whom she belonged to.

She went into the common room with a lousy headache and saw that Severus and Regulus had been waiting for her. They rose silently from their chairs and joined her on the walk towards the Great Hall.

"Did you bang your head against the wall or was the squid once again trying to get inside?" Regulus joked and Juliet shook her head silently at it. It was a bad move and she winced when the world started to spin in front of her eyes.

"Reg, be nice. This day is already bad enough as it is," Severus sounded like he'd rather hang himself than look at the Headmaster whom would probably be wearing lilac robes with pink hearts or something similar that would cause a major headache to anyone with common sense.

"It can't be that bad," the boy laughed and received two murderous looks from his friends, and he gulped audibly. Juliet silently rubbed her aching forehead and sighed.

"I have a bad feeling about all of this," she muttered and Severus shared the grim look on his face.

"I'll check everything for you of Amortentia," he promised and Juliet smiled gratefully at him. They entered the Great Hall and took seats at the end of the Slytherin table. Severus immediately poured coffee for himself and Juliet did the same things with tea. The both lifted the cups on their mouths at the same time and Regulus shook his head at the two friends who turned their eyes at him, exactly at the same time.

"If I didn't know better I might have called you twins," he smiled and Juliet shuddered.

"No offense, but I don't want any more brothers. One over-protective brother is enough for me to handle for the rest of my life," she shook her head silently and sipped her tea. Severus smiled and sipped his own coffee. It was clear to everyone in the Slytherin house that you did not annoy Severus Snape before he had had his morning coffee, and some had learned it the hard way.

"I doubt he can be too over-protective since we are still alive," Regulus noted lightly and Juliet nearly spit the tea out of her mouth in her laughing fit. She coughed as she nearly suffocated herself and Regulus patted her back until she could breathe again.

"Oh dear lord, you have no idea," she just muttered with her eyes twinkling with amusement. Severus and Regulus both looked at her curiously as she smiled.

"Let's just say that my fiancé is going to have the shock of his life if he believes that he can get away with getting me pregnant before I turn twenty-five," she wiped tears of amusement out of her eyes and both boys burst into laughter. They all laughed at the idea of Henry murdering the Dark Lord and Juliet laid her head on the table, trying to get a control of herself again. Her cheeks ached out of the smiling and finally, they all calmed down. Regulus had to bite his lip in order to stop himself out of laughing again, and Severus looked like it was the first time in years that he had genuinely laughed.

"I have no doubt that he would murder him in the bloodiest and most painful way ever," he uttered hastily and Juliet wiped away her tears silently. More and more people were getting inside the Great Hall and she tried her best to act like a Slytherin would act. They all stared at the table in order to calm down.

The owls came into the Great Hall and at least twenty owls landed in front of Juliet before a black raven landed on her shoulder with a small package with it. She gently took it into her hands and brushed the silky feathers before the bird flew away, and Juliet hid the package in her pocket without even looking at it. She was more worried about the owls and the fact that some seemed to wait for the previous ones to leave before landing.

"I hate Valentine's Day," she muttered as she started to take the packages from the owls. Regulus and Severus joined her after a while and they piled all of them on the table. The pile was much bigger than any other girl received and Juliet had a hard time not to burn everything.

A falcon flew to her and Juliet grabbed the small box it dropped for her. Lionheart didn't even stop for a moment before stealing a bunch of toast and flying away from Great Hall. Severus took the last package from the last owl and laid it down on the table when Juliet opened Henry's box and looked at the small ring inside it.

"What is that?" Regulus asked confusedly. Juliet took the ring into her fingers and bit her lip for a moment, feeling her chest aching.

"Dad proposed to Mum on Valentine's Day," she said silently as she took the ring. She slipped it into her right digit and felt the old magic from it. It was odd feeling the mixed magic of her parents in such a peaceful balance, but at the same time, the ring felt to comfort her.

"Why would your brother send you something like that?" Regulus asked confusedly and Juliet smiled silently.

"I don't know. I only know that the magic has left an echo behind," she told him and felt the magic adjusting into her pulse, forming a symbiosis with her body. She was feeding it, and it was feeding her. It was an odd feeling, but Juliet brushed it off as the echo's recognition of the familiar magic and turned towards the gifts people had sent her.

She finished her breakfast quickly and then started to open the packages, smiling at the sweet notes people had given her and avoiding touching some of the things Severus had said to contain Amortentia. Juliet curiously opened one red parcel and blushed crimson as she read the note. "Oh my word," she muttered and Regulus tried to steal a look at the note, but Juliet quickly burnt it, her face still a lovely shade of red. Severus raised an eyebrow and Juliet shook her head.

"Am I to expect some Gryffindor sent that note to you?" he asked from her and Juliet nodded her head while raising handcuffs from the package. Severus looked at them for a moment before meeting her eyes and Juliet just stared into them for a moment.

"I don't even want to know," he said quickly and Juliet nodded her head, lowering the handcuffs back into a pack. Regulus was busy trying to mask his laughter into coughs.

In the end, they discarded most of the chocolates people had sent for her, but Juliet kept the white roses that were faintly laced with Amortentia. She smiled when she smelled the scent from them and closed her eyes for a moment. She enjoyed the smell of the white roses and the slight changes Amortentia brought onto the smell.

"Don't stick your nose into them," Severus advised her and Juliet smiled.

"I won't," she promised him. She smiled as she laid the flowers down on the table again and the helped the boys go through the other gifts. Severus noticed easily the ones that were dangerous for her and Regulus helped to separate them, and in ten minutes, they were walking towards the Slytherin common room carrying her gifts with her.

Regulus left for his first class of the day when Juliet and Severus stayed behind in the common room while Juliet wrote thank you notes for the people who had signed their gifts. She was done in half an hour and since there weren't many people in the common room, she decided to check her fiancé's gift.

Severus was reading some ancient tome on potions and Juliet carefully opened the silk ribbon holding the package together. She carefully laid it down on her lap and then lifted the lid, her mouth dropping open in shock.

Tom had sent her a silver medallion, and Juliet carefully lifted it into her fingers. After a moment she realised it was a portkey and she lowered it back into the box, reading the note Tom had written for her.

_This portkey will transport you to my home. It will activate when you open the locket, and it can transport you through Hogwarts's wards. It can also transport you back to the place you left. The portkey will work as many times as you want it to.  
I wish to see you soon.  
T.M._

Juliet read the note silently and bit her lip as she put the locket around her neck. Severus didn't raise his eyes from the book and Juliet quickly hid it underneath her clothes. She was feeling anxious, but she knew that she had to meet him possibly that evening or at the latest, that weekend. She brushed hair off her face and glanced at Severus, whom seemed to be absorbed in the book, and she wished that she could just stay there and live her life like she had hoped to live.

She hid her anxiety underneath the calm surface and refused to show it to anyone.

* * *

That night, after Juliet had said goodnight to everyone and locked the door to her room, she sat down on her bed and looked at the locket for a full minute. She was wondering about leaving Hogwarts and what Tom would want to talk about in their meeting, and on the other hand she was scared to death. She did not know who would be in Tom's home when she went there, and the idea of being completely alone with the man made her extremely nervous. In the end, she could only take in a deep breath, close her eyes and open the locket and feel the sickening tuck behind her navel.

Juliet landed on her feet after years of learning quick reflexes and she opened her eyes in a hallway that seemed to be lightened with too few candles. She bit the inside of her cheek nervously as she looked around and noticed the large windows next to the front door and the expensive decoration of the room. The place did not have an extensive scent of magic around, but on the other hand, she could feel the magical presence of someone in the house getting closer to her. Juliet waited nervously as someone walked down stairs on the upper floor and then that someone, who was hidden by the shadows, walked into the main hall and looked at the nervous young woman standing awkwardly in there.

The man stopped in front of the woman and she bit her lip nervously while staring into his eyes. He reflected no feelings, and she shivered silently in fear. She felt like it hadn't been a very bright idea to visit him that night, but the man simply turned around and gestured her to follow him.

Juliet walked unsurely behind him and the man showed her into the second floor and into a drawing room where a cosy fire was lit. He sat down on an armchair and Juliet sat on another one, not looking directly into his eyes.

He was looking directly at her and she knew it almost too well. The man seemed to be deep in thought and she was afraid of the moment he would finally say something. The house was empty, and they were the only people there. Juliet nervously licked her lips and then made herself to look into his eyes for a couple of moments. A cool smile rose on his lips.

"I heard there were quite a few rumours of myself running in the school. What exactly did you tell them?" he asked from her with a polite tone and Juliet relaxed just a bit.

"I only told that I'd be moving to Sweden to live with my fiancé," she answered his question and he raised his eyebrows.

"It is quite odd that no one has ever heard of you in the major wizarding centres back in Scandinavia," he noted lightly and Juliet looked at her lap.

"The first reason is that we avoided almost all contact, and the second is that we actually lived there from July 1982 until August 1997," she told him with a silent tone and Tom looked amusedly at her.

"And you of course won't tell me anything that will happen in the future," he said and Juliet nodded her head in confirmation. Tom looked directly into her eyes and she could feel how he was trying to get through her Occlumency walls, but she kept them strong enough to stop him. He narrowed his eyes after a while, but let it go.

In fact, Tom actually poured some tea for them both and then gave her the cup. Juliet frowned as she took it into her hands and waited confusedly for him to say something that would explain the situation for her.

"I think it would be rather appropriate to get to know each other before the wedding day," he said and sipped his own tea. Juliet mirrored the movement and licked her lips confusedly. The man looked into her eyes.

"Do you have any questions for me?" she asked from him with a tense voice. The situation was not something she had thought to find herself in, and she felt like her shields had failed her that time. She just waited for him to speak and ask his questions, and the man let the cup lean against his thigh.

"I have quite a few," he stated amusedly and looked at her face. "What is your favourite book?" he asked, and Juliet thought about it for a moment.

"Muggle or wizarding?" she defined from him and he raised an eyebrow.

"Muggle," he answered. A small smile rose on her lips as chose her answer.

"Astrid Lindgren's _Mio, My Son_, though I much prefer the original version written in Swedish," she spoke. "What about yours?"

"Dante's _Inferno_," he replied and Juliet snorted. He raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to voice her opinion.

"Of course the big bad Dark Lord would like to read about Hell," she stated and a truly amused smile rose on his lips.

"And of course the odd time-travelling girl no one truly knows loves to read muggle fairytales," he threw back. Juliet rolled her eyes at the notion.

"I generally love fairytales, because every fairytale has a living, breathing version in the reality," she looked directly into her eyes.

"Such as _The Tale of the Three Brothers_?" he suggested, and Juliet nodded her head. "You can't seriously believe in such nonsense," he looked at her and Juliet had to bite her tong in order to not say anything mean to him.

Juliet started to explain the concept for him, and without her knowledge, the Dark Lord listened to her every word until she left her future home and after she was gone, he wrote down everything she had told him.


	17. Chapter 16: Look Right Through Me

**A/N: **Guess who has a maths exam tomorrow? This idiot! Way to go, me, you should be reading for it and not writing fanfiction. You could have written this chapter on Saturday, you moron *shakes fist at self* But hey, only four days of school left! Yay!

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Time was passing too quickly. Juliet was trying to hold on to those precious moments she had with Severus and Regulus, and yet they seemed to flee from her even though she tried to put her dark thoughts away and focus on the bright things. She was trying so hard to keep on going like she used to be, but every night she slept less and less, and she was feeling so tired all the time that sometimes she just wanted to sleep and never wake up ever again. Her nightmares wouldn't leave her alone. She couldn't eat. She stopped running in the mornings after feeling so tired that she just had to rest a bit more just to keep on functioning like a normal human being, and nobody even noticed anything.

She kept meeting with Tom once a week and they had started to plan on the wedding. He was an intriguing persona, and she felt like sometimes he truly was curious of the things she said, of her own opinion even though sometimes she felt like he was just using her to get something more. Every time she was with him she felt so sick with herself that she wanted to throw up. They would talk for hours, and after every conversation, she just felt so tired of it all that she wanted to disappear.

She kept on getting good grades. She was being polite to her housemates, did her homework and started to revise for NEWTs in the beginning of April. On her birthday they gave her presents; she smiled as she accepted them and that night cried in her room because she just wanted to be left alone. She didn't want them to be in love with her from a distance, but wanted to know them, wanted to know their thoughts and their deepest dreams because she couldn't afford to have her own. She wanted them to have it all because she felt like she was going to die.

The saddest thing in this all was that nobody realised how tired she was at it all.

* * *

Juliet glanced at the clock hanging around her neck and checked the time silently. It was half past three in the morning and she was sitting in the corner of her room, staring at the door silently and shaking after yet another nightmare. She could taste blood on her lips and knew that she had once again bit her cheek, and she tiredly healed herself, but the taste stayed. The blood never truly left. She could feel it between her toes and she closed her eyes, laying her head down on her knees and breathing shakily.

Her chest ached. She pressed her hand against it and massaged her heart slowly, trying to calm it down. She couldn't go to Madame Pomfrey and ask for a potion to help her sleep. She would start asking questions and questions always meant trouble. Trouble meant being hurt, and she was tired of being hurt. She was tired of them hurting her.

_It's just a dream, Juliet, _she told herself and blinked wearily, looked down at her bare feet and saw the blood on them before blinking again. _It's only a dream. _The blood was between her toes and she curled them, closing her eyes. _Think of something else. _The metallic scent in the air made bile rose into her mouth. She made herself stay still.

_Please..._

* * *

Another night in the Riddle Manor found Juliet in the drawing room with Tom talking about the wedding. The closer the exams were getting the more Juliet was starting to stress about the wedding, just because she knew that after the exams were done and she left Hogwarts, there would only be little time before she'd be married to him.

"Do you have anyone you want to invite to the wedding?" he asked from her.

"My brother and his fiancée are the only relatives that I know of who are still alive, unless we count people from your side," she spoke silently and before he could get angry, she continued. "I'd like for Severus and Regulus to come. They are the only friends I can actually invite to the wedding."

"Why, I thought it would be interesting if we invited some Gryffindors," he smiled sarcastically and Juliet looked at her intertwined fingers.

"Why are we even talking about the wedding? I thought that you already understood that I do not care for big spectacles and especially planning for them," she muttered and felt like she could really use some sleep even though her nightmares would wake her up that night. Tom looked at her observantly and she barely noticed it.

"You look tired and way too skinny," he said after a moment and Juliet lifted her eyes at him after a moment confusedly. Only he had noticed it out of all the people that she saw daily and she frowned while biting her lip. The Dark Lord noticed that she was tired and too skinny when her friends didn't. It was a scary thought.

"I haven't been able to sleep for a couple of weeks. There's just too much to do all the time," she confessed and her frowned as he looked at her. Juliet bit her lip nervously, waiting for him to speak and tried her very best to be the same girl he had met last autumn.

"It's because of the wedding, isn't it? You're worrying about it and trying to study for NEWTs at the same time, and it's finally starting to take its toll," he spoke with a silent voice. Juliet only shook her head once, trying to hide her face from him and the dark bruises under her eyes.

"It's only partially because of that, and I admit that I'd probably feel a lot better if I didn't need to worry about the wedding too. It's just that some of my friends are constantly asking about this marriage and engagement and I need to lie to them, because I can't let them know I'm going to marry you," she sighed and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. The headache was only getting worse and worse every day, and she knew it was because of all the stress she had been under for the past weeks. The NEWTs were approaching quickly and she had barely a couple of weeks to study for them, and she had so much to do during her time in Hogwarts that she didn't know where to actually start.

"Then why don't you tell them to mind their own business?" he raised an eyebrow and Juliet let out a strangled laugh as he looked at his face.

"I've tried that already so many times, but when it comes to Lily Evans, no one can stop her. It's pointless to try to get her to stop: she is just too Gryffindor for her own good," she muttered tiredly and leaned her head against a chair. Tom rose from his and took hold of her hand and he pulled her up. Juliet allowed him to do so and followed him down the stairs, out of the kitchen door and into the magnificent garden of the manor.

Tom led her to a marble fountain and she sat down on the edge, burying her head against his shoulder. He loosely kept his arm around her and Juliet silently wished that he would let go just that one time, just so she could fly away and find a new world to live in. Somewhere where fairytales were still true. Somewhere where there were forests that went on and on until the edge of the world was met, where seas were a deep green instead of a blue, where winters were cold and the summers warm and where sun shone light that was kind, where the mountains touched the sky.

"Why do you want to marry me?" she asked silently from him, and he chuckled. The vibrations ran through his chest and she could feel it beneath his skin, beneath the dark robes he always wore. He chuckled like he owned the world, like there was nothing to stop him, and Juliet could feel his every emotion beneath the cold surface.

"You need someone to take care of you and I need someone to be my voice of reason. I think this will be quite good arrangement for the both of us," he stated calmly and Juliet frowned.

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much," she raised her head from his shoulder and he smiled as he shook his head way too calmly for her liking. Juliet looked at the man that moonlight seemed to avoid and then looked at his shoulder as he looked at her.

"Yes, it certainly seems so. You aren't sleeping and you have lost too much weight for it to be healthy. Tell me, what's keeping you up at night?" he asked from her, and Juliet closed her Occlumency shields tightly around herself. This was not a time to let him see inside her head, and she sat silently, turning away from him and stared at the pale moon on the sky.

"You wouldn't understand it even if you tried," she told him with a stern voice. "You don't have the emotional capacity to understand nightmares. Once you split a soul, you lose half of what you had."

He was silenced for a couple of moments. "It splits the soul in half?" he asked from her with a strangled voice and Juliet looked at him, frowning silently while seeing the bewildered look on his face.

"Of course it does. A soul is something that you can take only pieces away: you have to break it in half to get the other part to fall off into another object," she explained him and he looked into her eyes.

"How come none of the books I read never said anything about this?" he asked from her in Parseltongue and Juliet looked at the moon, away from him.

"Because no one was ever stupid enough to break their soul more than once. There are so many things that can go wrong in that kind magic: you can curse yourself, or the part of a soul you leave behind, or you can accidentally destroy the part of a soul. It's extremely dark magic, and many books don't speak about it because there are so few how have ever even tried it," she told him. Tom stared at her.

"So if I've split my soul six times..."

"Then there's only one and half percent of your original soul left inside you at the moment, and over half of your soul is on the first horcrux," she explained to him, and he sat there shocked. Juliet stared at the moon while he tried to compose himself, and she let him have the time to understand what it meant.

"Where have you even read about horcruxes?" he asked from her with an accusing tone and Juliet smiled sadly.

"I'm an Adder. You'll figure it out," she stated silently, and he stared at her for a moment, clearly thinking about it for a moment.

"You can find every book you want, even if all of those versions have been destroyed by the time you get interested in those books," he said sounding utterly shocked, and Juliet smiled while she nodded her head in confirmation.

"Can you even imagine how many books we have in our possession? The house was built some 350 years ago, the library covers most of the second floor, we have a smaller library downstairs and there are books in the study, in the great room, in the common room on third floor, at the attic, in our bedrooms. Our whole house is a huge library. There are parts that haven't been covered that well and there are parts that have been covered better than anywhere else in the whole world. I've had that library to read from for over thirteen years, and I have only read a small part of it," she smiled, and her fiancé stared at her, quite not believing what she had said.

"And there are no restrictions on what you can read," he muttered, and Juliet saw the gleam in his eyes.

"Oh, there are. Some books won't open until you have stable enough magical levels, some parts of the library can't be reached until you're old enough, and some books can be read only by females and some only by Adders. There are quite a few restrictions in the library, but mostly it will listen to your wishes and give you the right answers in ways you didn't expect," she explained to him. He seemed genuinely interested in her words and thought about it for a moment.

"Do you think I might be able to use the library?" he asked from her, and Juliet quickly turned to look at him.

"Absolutely not. There are books in there from the future, and there are books in there that can very well change the future. If you change the future at this point, I'll be stuck with another version of myself for all eternity," she stated sternly, and he didn't look quite happy about it.

"But wouldn't it create a paradox? Since you never left the time you lived in, you would never land in here and that would mean I'd never end up changing the time," he looked at her, and Juliet shook her head silently.

"Time is complicated at best. I imagine that since I already know the future, my actions are actually the ones that will create it. It's always much safer to travel back than to travel forth," she spoke silently as she looked up to the sky and into the stars that shone with silent messages. The man next to her thought about it all, and she knew that he couldn't possibly ever understand the complexity of it all. Those stars existed at that moment, but not always and not in every moment. One day they were born and one day they all were gone.

"How much do you know of the future?" he asked silently from her, and Juliet looked at her hands.

"I can't really even tell that."

He was silent for a moment when he thought about it.

"There must be things that you want to change," he stated silently, and Juliet closed her eyes as she nodded only once, thinking about her parents, her friends, all the people that were going to die so very soon.

"And as much as I want to change those things, I must let them happen. Until the moment I finally return to the past, things are going to have to be exactly like I remember them to be. After that... after that I can finally keep the ones close to me safe," Juliet said with a voice void of every emotion. It was so hard to control herself. It was so hard to hide everything when she knew what was going to happen, and she just wished there were ways to save the people she would miss dearly.

After the moment she returned to the past. Juliet stopped as those words were etched into her mind.

Her mind started to form a plan, and she knew that if she was lucky, if she was extremely lucky, she might be able to save everyone.

* * *

The next morning, Juliet went for a run, her mind trying to process all the fine details of her plan. She knew she couldn't write anything down and she knew that she had to learn as much about the deaths of her friends so that she could return them back to life afterwards.

She knew that Necromancy was out of question seeing as that would require too much magic and it would pose so many risks she wasn't willing to take. Stealing the people into a time-bubble on the moment of their death and replacing the bodies with transfigured ones could work up to some extent, but she knew that at least Lily had to die in order to give protection to her son. That was forming to be her biggest trouble, but she had an idea of what she could do.

She could try breaking a time-turner on Lily's body and hope for the best. There was a chance, even if it was a very slight one, that it would actually work and bring the woman back to life while the time worked inside her. On the other hand, she could shrivel up to dust, but seeing as she would already be dead it seemed like an idea she was willing to try. All she had to do was to steal the woman's body mere minutes after her fiancé had exploded their cottage, leave another body behind and try the restoration in the future.

Saving the others would be much easier. Regulus would simply disappear, Sirius had to be replaced before the killing curse hit him and pushed him into the Veil, and James could be changed before he was killed. She could even save other people from their deaths.

Of course, she would have to live through them first, and they had to be revived after the war was fought. Hopefully her then husband would become her late husband and she would not have to worry about it, and the idea seemed to be better and better every moment.

Juliet actually smiled as she came back to the common room and faced the shocked looks of others. Since she had stopped running in January and it was already closing to May, the people were curious of why she looked so tired and yet so happy. The glamours were finally gone, there was a healthy blush on her cheeks and she felt like she could do anything. It didn't matter if she failed her NEWTs or if she was going to marry a psychotic, egocentric mass murderer, because she already had a plan and she knew that plan would work.

"Who are you and what have you done to Juliet Adder?" Regulus asked with an unsure voice from her, and Juliet actually laughed.

"I assure that I am myself. I just realised that school isn't important and that I can actually win in this war," she smiled at him and laughed as she went into her dorm room for a shower and a change of clothes, leaving behind many whispering Slytherins and a confused Regulus.

After a quick shower, a change of clothes and a battle between herself and her hair, which she ended up losing, she returned to the common room to two extremely curious Slytherins who grabbed her from the shoulders and quickly pulled her out of there, finding a nice empty dungeon corridor and then finally confronting her after putting on impressive silencing charms around themselves.

"What is going on?" Severus asked from her, and Juliet glanced at both of the boys with a mysterious smile residing on her lips.

"I think I may have found a way to keep us alive through this war," she told them with a serious tone and the boys looked at each other.

"Why do I have the feeling that this is going to end up badly?" Regulus asked silently from her, and Juliet glanced around them for a moment before casting a few privacy wards of her own.

"You just need to trust me. At the current moment, we just need to keep together and you need to trust me when I tell you to do something, because some of those things might be essential to save our lives," she glanced sharply at each of the men and they finally shrugged.

"If you say so," Severus sounded unsure and Juliet bit her lips for a moment.

"This is going to get very complicated maybe in a year or two, but I think that we'll find a way. What I need right now is a promise that you'll trust my judgement at least for the most part," she told them sternly, and Severus gave his hand to her. Juliet laid it below when Regulus laid his hand on top of Severus's, and Juliet put her left hand on top of them all.

"From this moment on, we will fight for ourselves. Not for the Death Eaters, not for the light side, but for ourselves," she looked both into the eyes, and they smiled back at her.

"And we'll fight for each other until the very end," Severus said, and Juliet could feel magic wrapping around their hands. She looked at Regulus, waiting for him to say his promise. The boy smiled as he looked at his older friends and Juliet smiled back at him.

"We are not going to give up."

* * *

Tom noticed the change in her quite quickly. One evening they were sitting once again in the garden and Tom had been staring at her for a good part of ten minutes already, and Juliet was quite curious of what the man was thinking. Of course, she pretended that she didn't notice it, just because she believed that Tom didn't even realise how long he had been staring at her. The warm spring evening was starting to change into a summer night, something Juliet was dearly fond of, and their wedding plans had come so far that only minor details needed to be decided until they could start working on the actual wedding. They had been arguing about the date for quite some time, but it seemed like she was going to get her mind through the matter and they would be wed sometime in August, something he wasn't too happy about.

After seven minutes of utter silence, Juliet finally spoke up. "Why are you so keen on staring at me?" she asked from him, and he seemed to be awakening from his thoughts. Juliet sighed and rolled her eyes as the man narrowed his eyes and she waited patiently for him to speak up his mind.

"You seem different," he stated while looking at her, clearly trying to find the source of the change. Juliet brushed some black locks behind her ear and looked seriously at the man next to her.

"People change, Tom. If you haven't noticed, I'm not even twenty yet and it seems like I am going to keep on changing for the rest of my life," she pointed out to him, but he just shook his head.

"I'm not talking about such change. You seem much calmer, as if you have found inner peace," he said and Juliet looked away from him, thinking about it for a moment. She knew he was right in his observation, but it would be much harder to explain it to him.

"Maybe it's because I finally understand the family motto and what it truly means," she muttered silently, saying the truth but still hiding it from him. The man stared at her while she kept on looking over the large gardens of the manor where no one else walked around. She knew a muggle lived by in a gardener's house, but she guessed that the muggle repelling charms were so strong that no one ever noticed them in the house.

"Tempore istinc?" he asked from her in confirmation, and Juliet nodded her head. "That is not a very common family motto, I must admit, though it fits your family quite well. I understand why you have chosen to carry it," he muttered softly and Juliet looked at him.

"Should I learn a new family motto?" she raised her eyebrow at him, and the man smirked.

"No, I don't think that to be essential in this marriage. You may change your name, but you'll never stop being an Adder. It's too deep in you," he stated calmly and Juliet laughed softly. The man frowned and she looked at him.

"What?"

"You've never laughed before in my presence."

"And your point was? I've been known to laugh before," she teased him, and the man just frowned as he looked at her. Juliet sighed tiredly as she pushed a few curls out of her face. "Why do people always turn silent when I first laugh in their presence?"

"You never crossed me as a person who laughs. You constantly seem so deep in thought and like someone who knows too much," he said silently and the smile was wiped away from her face. She stared at her hands for a moment, trying her very best to avoid looking him into the eye.

"I guess I didn't learn to laugh as well as I should have," she just said silently.

"What do you mean?" he asked from her. Juliet smiled sadly, the smile never reaching her eyes.

"Do you know what happens when you start to learn Occlumency at a too young age?" she asked silently from him, and he frowned as he looked at her. There was an intelligent look behind his eyes, something that told her that he was actually thinking about it quite a lot.

"Tell me," he asked from her, and Juliet looked at the hands in her lap. His hands took hold of hers, and she felt like he cared about her. It was a strange feeling. He cared about nothing. He wouldn't care about someone like her, not after what he had already managed to cause in her life.

"You shield your own mind away. It's not just shielded away from everybody else, but you actually keep parts of your mind locked out so that you don't have to remember certain things, so that you don't have to relive through those memories. They leak into nightmares and into everyday life. Some things remind you of your words memories, and you have to shut down those thoughts before they start to consume you," she told him. He listened to her words silently until he turned to her, taking her face between his hands and looking directly into her eyes, trying to find a way through her Occlumency shields. Juliet kept her memories hidden from her.

"What is going on in your mind?" he asked silently from her, and Juliet looked down into her lap, not daring to look into his eyes because she knew she wasn't strong enough to hide everything for much longer.

"You don't want to know."


	18. Chapter 17: In Love With My Sorrow

**A/N: **So, school's out for summer, we held a huge party last weekend and this previous night I didn't sleep at all. Isn't it nice how I can sleep 13 hours one day and not at all the next? Anyhow, I practically wrote this chapter with the power of coke and banana cake, so if there are huge spelling mistakes I am not to be thought responsible. Thought you should know.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

**TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER INVOLVES EXTREME VIOLENCE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**

* * *

June 10th turned out to be a very beautiful day. The Hogwarts students rose from their beds early on that day, some to study for their exams, some to enjoy the weather and forget about it all. Severus and Regulus walked towards the Great Hall talking animatedly about theories behind spell crafting, expecting to find Juliet already eating her breakfast since both of them had had a lay-in. The other option was that Juliet was actually having a longer workout that morning, since they both had noticed the woman to enjoy long runs on the weekends when people were starting to move outside and the sun shone brightly above the Scottish highlands.

All through the breakfast Severus and Regulus spoke about Arithmancy and the theories, and both were starting to become a bit worried about the missing girl. Finally, when the clock struck ten and the tables in the Great Hall were cleared, they looked each other in the eye and realised that she hadn't showed up. They stared at each other for a couple of minutes before gathering their books and walking quickly towards the Slytherin common room, wondering if she was studying in there or in her room.

When it turned out no one in the common room had seen Juliet during the morning, the blood in Severus's veins started to turn cold. He thought about all the chances that were possible, all the things that could have happened to the young woman. They quickly checked her rooms, saw the empty bed and no note on the pillow and the quickly fled from the common room to find a place to talk to each other.

"Do you know where she is?" Regulus asked from him in a silent corridor with a hushed voice. Severus shook his head. He was trying to find any memories that could explain her disappearance, but none surfaced.

"She didn't say anything unusual yesterday. Why would she just disappear like this?" Severus asked from the younger boy and he frowned.

"Do you think that she is with him?" he asked with a worried tone and Severus closed his eyes, trying to calm down his racing mind.

"She has said that she only meets him during the night. I doubt it's about him," he told Regulus with a worried tone and they both looked at each other.

"I think we should go check if she's with the Gryffindors," he said slowly, clearly afraid of the worst. Severus dragged the younger boy with him towards the tower where most of the Gryffindors lived and they waited anxiously for someone to open the door. The Fat Lady refused to open without a password and Severus came close to hexing the painting when suddenly a younger Gryffindor opened the door. Severus strode in without a question and saw Lily and Potter in the common room.

"Has anyone of you seen Juliet Adder this morning?" he asked from all the unbelieving students in the tower. Lily rose immediately from the loveseat and walked to Severus and Regulus.

"What do you mean with that?" the red-head asked from them in a no-nonsense voice that told them both what she thought about the situation.

"Juliet never was seen to leave the common room even though there is always someone up at the time she goes running. No one has seen her return or have a breakfast, we couldn't find any note in her room and none of the Slytherins know where she is. We know for sure that she hasn't sneaked out of the school to meet with her fiancé but that is all," Regulus quickly explained and some of the Gryffindors started to look worried. Potter turned towards one of the spiral staircases.

"Padfoot! Drag your arse up and bring the map!" he yelled and a tired looking Sirius slumped downstairs after a minute. He was carrying an empty parchment and Severus narrowed his eyes at the boy. Lupin was immediately following him and he looked confusedly at the Gryffindor common room.

"Juliet's missing. These two claim that none of the Slytherins know where she is," Potter only nodded his head towards the two Slytherins among the lions and Regulus nudged Severus into the ribs to stop him from saying anything mean to them.

"Can't her dorm mates keep an eye on her?" the annoyed Black asked from them and Severus narrowed his eyes.

"Juliet has her own room," Severus's tone was deadly calm and Regulus kept a careful eye at him. The Gryffindors looked dumbstruck.

"Why? It's not like we have our own rooms," the idiotic Black complained.

"Because none of the Slytherins trust her," Regulus spat. "She walks a very narrow line between getting herself killed and choosing a side in this war, something you clearly haven't noticed, oh dear brother of mine." Regulus and Severus stared angrily at the Black and he stared at the two men mouth wide open in shock.

"Now, if you're ready asking stupid questions, we would like to see this map and how it helps the situation," Severus spoke in his turn. Lily nodded her head and stole the empty parchment out of Black's hands, walked out of the Gryffindor common room and showed them a way into an empty classroom where no one would bother them.

Three of the Marauders gathered together with Lily and hid the parchment from the two Slytherins before allowing them to see the large map of the school. Severus looked at it for a moment before realising the map only showed the first and the last name.

"Look either for Sophie or Sophie-Rose Adder," he murmured at them. The Gryffindors looked at each other curiously.

"Why doesn't she go by her first name?" Lily was the one to ask the question out loud and Severus checked through the names on his corner before answering the question.

"She never really told, but I think that it might be a Shakespeare reference. The other reason could be that she is trying to remain as a person no one can truly track," Severus spoke absent-mindedly as his eyes brushed past the last long corridor of the map. He moved on to the second floor, trying to find her name on the parchment.

"Does this show people in their animagus forms?" he asked after a moment from the Gryffindors.

"As far as we know, it should," Potter answered.

"What is missing from it?" Severus continued, still scanning the map quickly. Lily was the one to answer the question.

"It might miss a couple of passageways we don't know about it, and the dungeon corridors aren't that clear. It also doesn't show the passwords to other Houses' common rooms. Since no one knows where the Chamber of Secrets lies, it's not on the map," Lily explained it to him and Severus frowned.

"She either walked out of the gates or used a portkey to get out of school," he muttered silently. Regulus looked at his friend, thinking about it.

"Do you think Slughorn would know where she is?" Regulus asked from him and Severus shook his head.

"Slughorn is an incompetent idiot. Juliet would never tell her plans to that man unless it was vital. McGonagall would be more probable, or Dumbledore," he muttered, moving on to another floor.

"I don't think she trusts Dumbledore. She has too much to lose if she lets him know anything," Regulus spoke quickly.

"McGonagall it is," he noted and went through the last floor. It was clear that Juliet Adder was not at Hogwarts and the six people in the unused classroom looked at each other for a moment.

"We're coming with you," Lupin stated with a stern voice as Regulus and Severus were going to walk out of the room. Black pointed his wand at the map and when it was cleared of all marks, he pocketed it. Severus scowled at them.

"Then be silent and let us work through this. I don't need a detention because some of you can't show the proper respect," he glared at Black and Regulus shook his head silently.

"Come. She was in her office," Regulus interjected before Severus could start a fight between them and the Gryffindors. He led them silently away from there and a few moments later, Regulus was the one to knock on McGonagall's door. The Scottish woman opened it and looked at the group of students in bewilderment for a moment before catching herself.

"Good morning, Professor. We can't find Juliet at the castle and wondered if you knew where she was?" Regulus looked charmingly at the woman. Severus stayed silently behind his friend, letting him to sweet-talk McGonagall and hopefully making the older woman tell them all she knew about it. The woman frowned at the group of students before letting them come in and closing the door behind their backs.

"Why have you come to ask me? I would presume that you'd ask your Head of House instead of me," the stern glare didn't even make Severs flinch. He only raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"The reason for it is quite simple, I believe. Her brother was and still is quite close to you and since she trusts her brother's judgement, she would trust you more than that man," Severus pointed out in a calm voice, not letting the woman see how anxious he was getting. McGonagall looked over her glasses at the people before sighing and putting down the quill on her hand.

"Miss Adder came to ask me last night if she could take a day off to visit her parents," McGonagall said. Regulus frowned when he heard it.

"Her parents are dead," he muttered confusedly and some of the Gryffindors stared at him in bewilderment. McGonagall gave the boy a stern look. Severus looked at the boy.

"She was trying to say that Juliet is visiting her parents' graves," he pointed out and Regulus opened his mouth before closing it again, looking at his feet feeling seemingly bothered by his lack of tact in the situation. Severus just sighed tiredly as he looked at McGonagall.

"Why today?" he simply asked from the woman. She took the glasses of her nose and looked at her Gryffindors for a moment, clearly seeing how they had had no idea that Juliet's mother had also died.

"They were murdered sixteen years ago. Henry never told me how it all happened, but it seems like there is something they aren't telling to others," McGonagall said silently and the students stared at her in silent shock.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Lily asked with a sad voice. Severus stared at the floor for a moment before seeing the pattern in front of his eyes.

"She doesn't want people to know because it would change how they act around her. She doesn't want to be reminded about it simply because there is something in those memories that is painful too remember," he spoke silently, finally understanding why the woman she had fallen in love with never spoke about her parents, why she avoided certain topics and conversations with others.

He shared a dark look with Regulus and decided it was time to cover the truth from the Gryffindors that were too shocked to see it.

"Thank you, professor, for telling us. We'll talk with her later," Severus nodded his head at McGonagall and then lead the students out of the woman's office. He knew Regulus would soon start on his role to save them from realising something he and Regulus had realised in the office.

Juliet just hadn't lost her parents.

She had _seen _when they were murdered.

They started the act, told the Gryffindors that they would let them know when she came back and thanked them for their help, even if it was forced with some individuals. They did all they could to hide the darkest secrets of their greatest friend from the others, wanting to protect her from their curious eyes and the questions that would end up doing more damage than good.

When they had said their goodbyes to the Gryffindors, they went back into the Slytherin dungeons, to calm their minds while watching the life beneath the surface of the lake. Neither spoke aloud of their thoughts: they both were just thinking about all the things Juliet could be hiding from them, all of the things that she probably never had even talked about with them. How much could one person take? How much more could she hide away before people would start to notice?

Severus didn't know the answer, but he was starting to feel scared for her.

* * *

That morning, when Juliet had left the Slytherin quarters to visit her parents' graves, she had felt surreal. It wasn't surprising thinking about the situation, knowing that it had been sixteen years from the worst day of her life. In the dead of the night when no one else could see her, she was no longer real; she was no longer someone they could understand. She was once again herself, the same old version of herself that she kept hidden every other time. And it broke her heart to know that they wanted to help her as much as they could, but they didn't know how to. She wanted to tell them everything, but she was scared to see their faces after they would realise how screwed up she was. She closed her eyes as she walked through the school, wrapped up in a black cloak and black clothes, hiding herself in the darkness that had been her friend for too long.

The sun was starting to rise slowly from beneath the high mountains and Juliet watched sadly at the beautiful scenery. Hogwarts never had been truly a home for her. She had always known that she would never stay there for long, that her home was somewhere else where the sun didn't set in the summers and where the winters were harsh and cold. She missed her home more than ever again, and it was sad to think that because she had lost her parents she barely understood anymore what home meant.

Outside the gates of the great Scottish castle Juliet turned around to look at the place silently, trying to remember all of the scenery. It felt like after that day she would no longer be the same, like something was going to happen that day. She didn't know what it was or if she could stop it from happening, but she sighed silently as she remembered the gates outside of Vale cemetery and apparated to the old graveyard.

It was a bit darker at the valley where the cemetery had lain for almost seven hundred years, but Juliet knew the sun would rise quickly after it broke the horizon line. There was no other living soul at the place as she walked through the old paths, under the trees that seemed to cover the sky from the people that wanted to travel the paths. Juliet absentmindedly looked at the old Gaunt tombs, knowing that she should probably mention her fiancé about the place at some point so that he could visit his family. On the other hand, it seemed improbable that he would understand the sentimentality in visiting someone's grave. Juliet sighed tiredly and felt a tide of weariness wash over her.

Juliet stopped in front of her parents' grave and stared at the marble stone for a moment, not moving at all before taking her wand out and conjuring white roses on the grave to grow from the old earth. It wouldn't matter for anyone else but for her and her brother, and that was enough for her. She needed to know that some things still could live even when she felt like she was dying.

"Hey Mum, Dad," she greeted them silently, looking at the headstone, not quite sure of what she would say to them. She had so much that she wanted to tell them, so much that no one else could listen but them, and it broke her heart to know that it had been sixteen years from the night that she had lost them, and she still felt like they were constantly with her. Even though she didn't believe in angels, sometimes she felt like they were watching over her, making sure that she was still living on her life.

Juliet closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the tears rising into her eyes. It was so hard to remember them. It was painful to know that she had had them for two years of her life, to remember how they had been taken away from her. It was so painful to remember that she had been supposed to die on that attack, that she should be laying beneath the silently sparkling stars.

"I don't know what to do," she confessed them, wiping away tears from her eyes, knowing that her words were too true. "I don't want to get married. I don't want to live with someone I can't ever fall in love with or someone who doesn't understand how much there is wrong with me. I just want this all to end," she cried silently, pressing her head into her knees.

"Why can't it stop? Why do I need to keep on fighting when it seems like I am the only one that won't survive this war?" she asked from them, begging silently to hear an answer. She needed her parents so much that it hurt her chest, she needed her mother's kind words and her father's advice, needed them to tell her how she could survive that time.

"I'm so sorry. I don't think I can carry on much longer," her words were fragile, just like she felt like. It was horrible to be there, horrible to feel like she was suffocating in the words she couldn't say to anyone else. She wanted to smile like a normal person, wanted to laugh, _wanted to be happy, _and she knew she couldn't have any of that. There was no chance the memories would leave her alone, no chance that she could find a way to understand the pain.

Someone laid a hand on her shoulder and Juliet looked at the man slowly, feeling the blood freezing in her veins. She felt the horror inside herself as he stared straight into her eyes.

"Hello, paper rose."

* * *

Henry stared silently at the picture of his parents and sister from the times she had been born before closing his eyes and feeling the tears falling out of his eyes. He took in a shaky breath and crumbled the photograph into a tight ball. The old grandfather clock on the wall held their names, and as Henry thought about the part where Juliet's name had landed, he felt like he was drowning.

_Dying._

* * *

It was weird how the pain wasn't the worst part. Even when she screamed in the worst agony she had ever felt in her whole life, it wasn't the worst part of it all. Even when the curses cut her skin and the blood soaked through her hair, even when her face lay in a puddle of blood, she didn't think the pain was the worst part of it all.

_No._

He waited after every curse until she would look at her slashed arms, until she would realise that she hadn't yet died. She didn't know how long she had been there or how much she had already bled, but the blood had stained her whole body. The wounds no longer bled so effectively and Juliet wondered if she was already going to die.

The monster kept staring at her with a smile on his lips. He almost seemed to enjoy the sickening smell of blood in the air.

_Red._

_Blood._

_Pain._

Juliet couldn't scream anymore. She barely could breathe, barely could keep her eyes open and try to stay awake. She was so scared, so afraid and yet she wished she would die as soon as possible. Her heart tried to beat, tried to keep her alive even when she knew that she was going to die.

_Please..._

"Don't you wish now that you had been a good girl and not fought us back then, hmm?" the monster asked from her. "It's much more quicker when you're small, you know. You would have died much more quickly back then," he noted calmly and Juliet tried to keep her eyes focused on the man, but the pain was starting to numb out.

_So cold..._

She knew that she didn't have much time left as she looked at her reflection in the man's eyes. She could taste the blood on her lips, feel it on her skin, between her fingers and toes, staining everything that once was pure and bright. There was blood everywhere.

She noticed her handprint on the wall and wondered if it would stay there when she was gone or if they would wash all the signs away.

"I have to admit you're quite stubborn. Not many have lasted this long. I remember your mother was quite quick to die," the monster smiled charmingly and Juliet could feel the stained tears on her cheeks mixing with blood. She couldn't breathe. It wouldn't take much longer.

She savoured the thought inside her mind like it was the only spark in a huge dark room.

"Your father on the other hand survived almost for an hour. It's wonderful what a little magic can do," the monster's eyes gleamed in amusement. Juliet tried to breathe, but it hurt so much.

Flashes of people she had once known went through her mind. _Regulus. Lily. Dad. Severus. Sirius. Henry. James. Remus. Mum. Tom._

_Tom._

The medallion.

Her fingers inched slowly towards her throat. The monster calmly leaned against a wall, waiting to see what she was going to do. He didn't even seem to care about it. He didn't seem to notice how she struggled to open the medallion, how she fed her magic into the medallion, picturing St. Mungo's inside her mind, hoping that it would be enough.

The pressure of apparation made her lose consciousness.

* * *

For a moment she did not know where she was. The soft surface beneath her felt strange, she didn't recognise the smell and when she opened her eyes, all she saw was white above her head.

Her body felt heavy, she ached all over and her mind felt foggy. There was someone moving at the other end of the room and it took a moment for her to focus her eyes long enough to see who there was.

"Oh, you're awake!" the young healer smiled at her and Juliet immediately felt like hexing him into oblivion. The man looked way too happy for her liking and she almost closed her eyes again, trying to act like she hadn't been awake in the first place.

Juliet looked down at her body and frowned when she saw the bandages.

"How long have I been out?" she asked from the man in a clear voice, dragging herself into a sitting position. The healer quickly came to stop her from doing so, but a nasty glare into his direction made him stop halfway through the room.

"Just four hours, Miss," he said, clearly unsure of what to do. Juliet let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to think clearly. They had clearly fed her multiple potions and she wasn't sure at all if she would throw up because her mouth tasted like she had kissed the south of a northbound hippogriff after eating a couple of dead rodents.

"Could you tell me your name? We couldn't identify you seeing as you didn't have anything with you when you came in here," the healer looked at her and Juliet leaned her back against the wall.

"My name is not of importance," she answered the healer tiredly. She closed her eyes for a moment and her wand popped out of thin air into her lap. Juliet looked at it silently before taking it into her hand and conjuring a Patronus. The healer looked at her worriedly.

"Miss, you really shouldn't use magic right now. You have received serious injuries and using your magic right now might damage the core," the man warned her and Juliet smiled faintly.

"I'm at St. Mungo's. The worst damage has been healed. I'm going to my fiancé's place," she told the Patronus and the wolf ran out of the room, through the wall. She knew it would inform Henry and prepare him for her arrival. Juliet lowered her wand as she looked at the healer.

"Well, it certainly was pleasant to chat. Unfortunately, I have to go now before my family gets too worried," she smiled at the man and rose from the hospital bed. The healer raised his wand but Juliet nonverbally disarmed him and looked at her fragile, head to toe covered form.

She closed her eyes and apparated into Riddle Manor.


	19. Chapter 18: Before I Die

**A/N: **This has been a very intresting week for me. This week I'll start working and I'll have a little less time to write, but it's only for about five hours a day I'll be spending away from home. Then the next two weeks I'll have a bit more time to write again. Yay! And then starts Camp NaNo. Guess who has no idea, plot or characters? Me!

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

The apparation almost made her lose consciousness again. Juliet quickly steadied herself against a wall, taking in deep breaths with her eyes closed and gripping her wand tightly. She could feel the presence of people around her, but at the moment she was doing her best to not throw up or faint, and it took almost half a minute before she could open her eyes and look around in the room.

Tom stared straight at her.

"Who did this?" he asked from her in a poisonous tone and Juliet flinched in fear. She couldn't stop herself from shaking, couldn't help the dizziness and the nausea and the fear roaming wild in her body when he walked to her, took a tight hold of her wrist and she almost raised her wand against him before realising who he was and what he was trying to do.

Juliet looked him into the eyes and let her Occlumency shields drop, knowing she could never explain it to him in words. She stopped him from seeing what she had said to her parents, but she let him see everything else she had experienced, let him see all the things the monster had told her.

When he was done he was shaking with rage and she was shaking with fear. She avoided looking at everyone else in the room, avoided at seeing the fearful looks on their faces when Tom slowly turned towards them.

"I want Quintius Owen dead by nightfall," the Dark Lord stated coldly at the roomful of Death Eaters, still having a tight hold of Juliet's wrist. In a way he was supporting her and in a way she needed the touch, but she was scared of the tight grip he had and the cold tone he spoke in. The Death Eaters nodded their heads, muttered their thanks and goodbyes and apparated away from the room while Tom turned towards her, quickly carrying her away from the room and upstairs, towards the bedrooms that no one used.

His hands were surprisingly soft as he laid her down on a bed in a light room in the third floor. Juliet silently sat there, holding her wand like she held on to life while he started to pace from wall to wall, not saying anything for a couple of moments while she just sat, trying to calm herself down and to accept what had happened.

"I did warn them what the price would be, but it seems like they are so stupid I need to make it clear to everyone that you are mine," he spat with a vicious tongue and Juliet looked tiredly at him. Her back lay against a pillow and the bandages were covering her whole body and she was scared for the moment when he decided that he should see the damage and how well the healers at St. Mungo's had handled the situation.

"Libby!" he called and a scared house-elf popped into the room immediately. "I want Blood-Replenishing Potion, Draught of Peace, Murtlap Essence and Dittany and Star Grass Salve. Do not let anyone else than Henry Adder to enter the house," he ordered the elf, looking at Juliet and she quickly avoided his eyes.

They were silent for a couple of awkward moments. "You shouldn't use your magic for at least two days. What exams do you have next week?" he asked from her and Juliet kept staring at her hands.

"History, Astronomy and Herbology. I should be fine without travelling in time," she answered him and the uncomfortable silence spread into the room once again.

After a moment the elf popped into the room, laid the potions on the end table and popped out of the room in a blink of an eye. Juliet quickly drowned the Blood-Replenishing Potion. Tom simply sat on the bed and started to unwrap her left arm while she didn't even look at the damage, afraid to see what would be left.

He froze for a moment. "How bad is it?" she asked with a silent voice, afraid to hear the answer.

"I've seen much worse. The healers have done a good job," he stated silently and Juliet shook her head. She looked tiredly at Tom, into the dark grey eyes that reflected wisdom and knowledge of these matters with her own blue eyes that shone with tiredness.

However, before she could tell him how bad of an idea she thought it to be, there was a shy knock on the door and a house-elf opened it to Henry, who looked over the Dark Lord, straight at his little sister and the man moved quickly towards them. He was carrying a green backpack with him, something Juliet easily recognised as being the bag she always kept packed in case of emergency.

"Who did it?" he asked with a cold, calculating tone, and Juliet avoided looking directly at Henry. Tom frowned while he looked at his future wife's brother before answering him.

"It was Quintius Owen," the Dark Lord told the man and Juliet didn't even want to know what Henry was thinking at that moment. He dropped the bag on the floor, moved over to Juliet and kissed her forehead quickly before returning to the door. Henry's cold and calculating eyes looked at the older man sitting on the bed.

"Take care of my little sister. I will take care of him," he spoke with a voice that had no apparent emotion, nothing that Juliet could attach to the image she had had of her brother. The door was closed behind him and Juliet silently sat on the bed while Tom turned towards her, trying to understand the look on her face.

Juliet had a hard time in controlling herself. She knew that Henry would kill the man in the most painful way he could ever imagine, torture him until he begged for death and pay back what he did to her. She stared at her hands for a moment when Tom rubbed the potions into her arm, trying to ease the scarring so that it wouldn't look so bad.

"Do you know how scary it is how far Henry is ready to go when it comes to family?" Juliet asked with a silent voice from Tom, trying to wrap her head around the fact that her brother was ready to kill someone and Tom, the Dark Lord Voldemort, was healing her wounds and being with her. His hands stopped for a moment but he continued his work without commenting on it.

"When it became clear that you wanted to marry me, he promised to me that if you'd ever hurt me, he would kill you," she said silently, and that shocked him out of his silence.

"And you think that he would do so?"

Juliet thought about it for a moment and then shook her head.

"He wouldn't risk breaking the contract. It's more important to him to protect his family than to avenge the things that happened to us," she answered silently and Tom let go of her left arm. Juliet turned a bit so that he could start working on her right arm.

"How about now? Why would he go after Quintius Owen if he'd rather keep you safe?" he asked, clearly trying to understand the situation. Juliet closed her eyes for a moment, pushing away the images of pain and blood and getting in control of her thoughts again. She sat silently on the bed, letting his experienced hands ease the tenseness in her arms.

"I think he thinks that you wouldn't hurt me right now," she stated softly, not looking him into the eyes, not wanting to risk seeing them flash into crimson. She didn't want her brother to be wrong, she didn't want to go through any more pain, she just wanted a hug and someone to hold her, someone to kiss her and tell her that everything would be fine, and she wanted that it wouldn't be a lie like it were when she told it to herself.

When Tom was done with her arms, Juliet silently rolled the legs of her trousers up, seeing the bandages that had a bit of blood in them. He stopped her hands from moving and looked at her face, a serious look upon his.

"You need to take of your clothes," he stated silently and Juliet completely froze. She just stared at him, not moving at all, trying to breathe and control her panic as well as she could.

"Why?" she asked silently.

"Because I need to see all of the damage so that I can heal it," he reasoned her and leaned back while she bit her lip nervously, trying to decide what to do. She knew he was physically and magically stronger than she was and that he could simply cast Imperius on her and make her bend to his will, but she was scared to take off her clothes.

"Why are you so afraid of taking off your clothes in front of me?" he raised an eyebrow at her and Juliet looked at him.

"Just because I'm going to marry you doesn't mean that I already had that particular pep talk with myself," she noted sarcastically, trying to cover the imminent fear she was experiencing. He just shook his head in annoyance.

"Leave your underwear on, then, if it's such a problem for you," he rolled his eyes and turned around, giving her a bit of privacy. Juliet bit her teeth together as she slowly removed her trousers and the shirt she had received at the hospital. Her torso had been covered in different kind of bandages, but she knew that she only had her pants and that she would absolutely refuse to look him into the eye later that day when it would come down to removing the bandages covering her breasts.

He simply continued on with his work while he turned towards healing her legs. Some spells had hit her thighs, nothing more, and she was grateful that she wouldn't need to ensure his touch so close to her hips much longer. He didn't comment on how skinny she was nor did he comment on her underwear, and Juliet was relieved of it. Of course, he was a Dark Lord, and of course there were people ready to throw themselves at him, but the tact he was showing was something she completely appreciated.

He slowly moved his hands on her stomach, starting to slowly unravel the bandages. Juliet bit her lip and closed her eyes when his soft hands moved along her body. She kept her body on a tight leash, not letting anything to break the calm surface she had hidden herself under. To be honest, when she had woken very early that morning, she had not imagined the day to end like that. Sure, it had been possible that something would happen and that her friends could find out about her past, but ending up almost naked in a bedroom with a Dark Lord had not been in her plans.

"Remind me next year to not rise on this day," she said silently as he started to heal the wounds on her stomach.

"Next year nothing will happen," he stated calmly and Juliet snorted.

"And you just cursed it," she stared at the ceiling. He shook his head silently and his hands stopped at her waist. Juliet froze as his fingers slowly moved on her skin, not trying to take off any more of the bandages.

"Is there a reason why you don't like to be touched so intimately?" he asked from her and Juliet kept staring at the ceiling, supporting her body against the arms that had been propped up on the bed.

"Other than I just was attacked, my mind is extremely fucked up and I don't trust anyone? Not really," she shrugged. He tutted silently.

"Language," he reminded her and Juliet couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. She turned her head slowly to look at him, silently wrapping the bandages better around her breasts and then taking her shirt into her hands.

"Don't you think you are being a bit hypocrite, oh big bag Dark Lord of mine?" she smirked at him, and he answered the smirk with his own. Juliet couldn't help but notice how much younger he looked when there wasn't such darkness in his eyes.

"Shush, little girl. Go have a shower, get dressed and meet me back downstairs. We have a lot to talk about before you return to Hogwarts," he looked directly into her eyes and then left the room before Juliet could even say anything against him. She looked behind him for a moment and then rose from the bed, taking the green backpack with her into the jointed bathroom and closing the door behind herself with a small smile on her lips.

* * *

Juliet returned back at Hogwarts that evening, just a bit before the dinner would start. She had had a long talk with Tom about safety issues and what she could do after they were married, and Juliet had won the argument of whether she should be able to work or not. Apparently, she could nag him enough so that he would be so annoyed that he would simply give up rather than receive a huge headache by arguing with her.

Wearing her black jeans, a long sleeved black shirt and the red trainers that had been fixed with magic so many times it had become quite impossible to fix them, she looked like she had been in the muggle world. The green backpack hang from her shoulder, holding in an army knife, spare clothes and another pair of shoes, a backup wand, some money, muggle and magical, and a pile of maps of England and Sweden, just in case. She sat down on the Slytherin table, casting a quick tempus to see the time and realised her watch had been stolen from her.

She froze when she realised she couldn't summon it from anywhere, and the thought saddened her. The fact that it wasn't coming to her meant that the watch had been broken by magic and that there would probably be nothing left of it. She had carried it with her for two years and now she no longer had it, and it felt odd.

She'd simply have to create another one for herself.

Regulus and Severus came into the Great Hall along with other people, and both of the men looked sharply at the alone sitting Slytherin at the end of the table. They quickly made their way to her, Severus cast a quick silencing spell around them and then they both looked at her.

"Why didn't you tell us about your parents?" Regulus asked from her in a kind voice, and Juliet blinked a couple of times in shock. All the things that had happened that day had made her forget it had been sixteen years since her parents died, and the thought came crashing down.

"I don't like talking about my past," she shrugged while the food appeared on the table and both of the boys looked at her as if they didn't believe her. Juliet sighed tiredly and rubbed her face.

"It's the truth. Look, I've had an extremely shitty day thus far, I haven't eaten anything since last night and I almost got killed, so can we not talk about that also?" she asked from them, and both of the boys looked at her in bewilderment as she took some food on her plate and poured some water for herself out of a carafe.

"What happened?" Severus asked quickly, anxiously and Juliet looked into his eyes, nonverbally telling him that she was fine.

"Someone attacked me at the cemetery. Henry... Henry is taking care of it," Juliet told them in a voice that wasn't hers. And slowly, she started to tell them the story, tell them what exactly had happened, just because she knew that it was important to let them know.

* * *

A couple of nights after the day she had been attacked Tom showed up in the Slytherin common room without any warning. Juliet looked surprised at her fiancé for a long while before nodding her head, seeing the scared looks of other Slytherins as the man looked at Juliet.

"Is there a reason why you barge in here and scare the little ones half dead?" she asked lightly from him and the man simply raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.

"Do big bad Dark Lord need motives behind their actions?" he challenged her and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"If it's about the cemetery, I'll gladly take you there some other night. I have my Astronomy NEWTs in forty-five minutes and I already know that it'll take at least an hour if you start acting like Sherlock Holmes," she shook her head silently as she closed the book in her lap and looked expectantly into his eyes. He seemed truly amused.

"Actually, I came here to ask for a favour," he stated simply while looking at her. Juliet narrowed her eyes at him and knew that he had some ulterior motive.

"I need to find a book. I believe that you might have it in your library," he looked into her eyes and Juliet looked for warning signs of him losing his temper.

"What book?"

"The book is about some very rare fairytales. I believe that one of your ancestors wrote it," he answered. Juliet looked at him for a long time. She remembered seeing the book, but she wasn't sure what its name was or who had written it.

"Small blue book that is ancient and brand new with handmade drawings?" she asked from him and he nodded his head in configuration. Juliet closed her eyes, trying to remember more about the book, more about what it talked about.

"What language is it written in?" she asked after a moment, trying to remember it and the man looked amusedly at her.

"In English, though the fairytales have been gathered from northern Europe," he answered. Juliet's eyes flashed open and a small smile rose on her lips.

"The book is called _The North Star _and it was written under the pseudonym A. Nebula. I can't remember who was the actual writer, but since it was published first in the end of 13th century, I can narrow it down to four people," she told him with a small smile on her lips. He looked genuinely surprised.

"Where have you come in possession of such a memory?" he asked from her and Juliet smirked.

"Oh, the moomins gave it to me back in Sweden," she smiled sweetly at him, rose from her chair and gathered her stuff. He looked confusedly at her and she chuckled slightly, knowing that he probably thought her as a mental.

"Don't try to steal it from our library. As much as you want to be a cliché, I must admit it would be quite troublesome to explain the Ministry why exactly there is a dead Dark Lord in the house," she smiled sweetly at him and left the common room before anyone else could say anything, not letting him even curse her. She smiled on her way towards the Astronomy tower and soon heard steps behind her as Severus caught up with her.

"You are utterly brilliant and extremely deranged," he muttered to her as they walked together towards the Astronomy tower. She simply smiled at him and took his hand into hers, enjoying the calmness her reflected, the calmness that she had lost from her mind.

"All the brilliant people are a bit mad," she smiled at him and he laughed silently.

"I guess I'm just mad and not brilliant at all," he shook his head with a fragile smile on his lips and Juliet squeezed his hand softly, making him look directly into her eyes.

"Severus, you are one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. Don't you dare let anyone tell you anything else," Juliet spoke seriously and he simply smiled.

"Sure."

Somehow, Juliet just knew that he didn't believe it himself.

* * *

Stepping into the Great Hall, Juliet quickly looked around herself, nodded her head to the examiner and took her wand out of the pocket. She wasn't exactly sure what they would her to do, but she knew that she was better at Defence than her teacher was and she had spent the previous night sleeping quite well. Being in the beginning of the alphabet had an advantage of not having to get so nervous and she simply walked to the examiner, stopped in front of him and waited for him to speak. It didn't take long.

"My name is Zacharias O'Brien and I will be your examiner," the man explained to her and she nodded her head. "If you would step in front of the cabinet, please," he gestured to her and Juliet walked in front of it, looking suspiciously at the cabinet. The lock on the door opened and Juliet knew from the magical signature what would come from there, and she quickly strengthened her Occlumency fields as much as she could, but the boggart took its form.

Juliet was staring into the eyes of her father and she cringed when he looked sadly at her, his throat being slit by an invisible force and he fell into the floor. She closed her eyes and made herself stay calm while pointing her wand at the boggart, mentally telling herself that it wasn't her father, that making him disappear wouldn't change the fact that he had already died.

"_Riddikulus_," she said with a strong voice and opened her eyes after she heard the small gasp from the examiner. Juliet stared at the silvery mist for a moment before forcing it to back up into the cabinet, locking the door behind the boggart and then lowering her wand.

The examiner wrote something down into his notes and then lead Juliet to a cleared space in the Great Hall, taking out his wand and putting the notes down.

"As the second task we will duel and the faster you manage to disarm me, the more points you will receive," the examiner stated calmly. "You shall use any spell that you know and I will simply try to block them and send minor hexes into your direction. The hexes that hit you will lower your score."

The duel started without any warning, but Juliet calmly stepped away from the path of the hexes. It took her less than a minute to hold the examiner's wand in her hand and give it back, and he wrote something into his notes again.

"Have you been trained in duelling?" the examiner asked and raised his eyes at Juliet.

"I attended Durmstrang for a couple of years and my brother has trained me," she simply answered and the examiner wrote something into his papers.

The exam didn't take much longer. She was asked to do a couple of more spells, show her Patronus and when she was done, she simply left the Great Hall and went outside to wait for Severus. He was in the end of the alphabet, so it would take at least an hour or two, so she simply sat down by the lake and looked at it, summoning a book from the Slytherin dungeons and starting to read it.

More and more people came out of the building and Juliet raised her eyes off the book every now and then, waiting to see Severus. After a while she heard footsteps and looked at the form of Lily Evans who simply sat by her, looking at her silently, with a wondering look in her emerald eyes.

"Are you going to ask about my fiancé again?" Juliet asked from her, closing her book and she shook her head. Juliet raised an eyebrow at this and Lily bit her lip.

"I was just wondering what will you do after school," she confessed silently and Juliet frowned. The Slytherin looked at her hands and the wand laying on the grass next to her before giving her answer to the Gryffindor.

"Well, me and my fiancé still have a lot to plan for the wedding. After it has been taken care of, I'll probably find a place for a shop either at Diagon Alley or at Knockturn Alley and begin to work as a silversmith alongside with my brother," Juliet answered her and the Gryffindor girl frowned.

"Why at Knockturn Alley?" she simply asked and Juliet smiled.

"There are just so much better wards in there. Diagon Alley may be much more popular, but it is also in a bigger risk of a public attack by Death Eaters or the Dark Lord and having a shop in the beginning of Knockturn Alley would be a good choice in this war. You know, people wouldn't have to delve too deep into the mysteries you find in there but the dark side would be close enough that I would be able to know more about it. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, you know?" Juliet smiled and the look in Lily's eyes cleared up.

"So you're going to stay neutral in this war?" the Gryffindor asked and Juliet shook her head.

"I can't really stay neutral, but I try to keep my options open. I'm not going to fight for the Light or the Dark, though," she admitted and Lily looked at the lake. She looked like she was pondering on something.

"James and I are going to fight for the Light," she said after a moment.

"I wouldn't expect anything else from you."

Lily looked surprised at the young Slytherin's comment. "Why?" she demanded to know and Juliet laughed.

"Because you are a Gryffindor. You have no sense of self-preservation at all, you have a clear idea of what's right and what's wrong and there is nothing that will make you bend down to the Dark Lord. He hates muggles and you are a muggleborn. You follow Dumbledore like a puppy and see nothing wrong with that man. There is no chance that you would step down in this war," Juliet spoke, remembering all too well how much Lily had sacrificed for the greater good. The woman frowned.

"What is wrong with Dumbledore then?" the Gryffindor frowned and Juliet held a glazed smile as she looked over the lake.

"Nothing is entirely black or white. There are just many, many shades of grey."


	20. Chapter 19: Contending The Flame

**A/N:** Sorry I didn't update last week! I was quite sick the previous weekend and then I had so much work to do that I absolutely didn't have the time nor the energy to write. I'll stop working in the beginning of July and then I'm going back to school halfway through August, so I should have about 1,5 months to just rest and write. Of course, with Camp NaNo coming on I won't be focusing just on this but also on another project.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

The rest of the month went in a blur. Sooner than Juliet was ready, she was being congratulated by her teachers, sent away from Hogwarts in a boat the others had arrived in the first year and sitting on the Hogwarts Express, most probably for the last time in her life. Severus was with her all that time, hugging crying Slytherins silently and saying goodbyes to them. In a way, Juliet felt like she was in a big funeral.

When the time had come and they had said their goodbyes to each other at King's Cross, hugging each other tightly like they knew that it was the last time they could do so, they simply walked away from the station without looking at each other, finding their own places to apparate to their own homes and then, carry on with their lives like it wasn't breaking their hearts to know that they could never sleep in the same bed, that they could never hang in the Slytherin common room way past midnight.

Juliet had went to Devon, to meet with her brother and start packing up her things for the move. It was harsh to go through her room, a place she had thought to be her sanctuary for a very long time. It was hard to know she would have practically have no privacy in her future home, that she would have to share almost everything with the husband she was scared to marry.

Almost after an hour packing up, they sat on her bed and listened to the birds singing outside the open window.

"Are you sure you are ready for this?" Henry asked from her carefully and Juliet smiled kindly, sipping from her cup of tea.

"Not at all," she admitted as she brushed some dust off her jeans, "but I know I have to do this. It's important to keep you safe."

Henry frowned as he listened to her words, clearly disagreeing with his sister, but he said nothing out loud. Juliet was thankful for it. She know that it was as hard for him as it was for her.

"How are things going with you and Grace?" she asked from him, looking at the face of the brother she had known for all of her life. A genuine smile rose on his lips as he thought about her.

"She hasn't backed up yet and it seems like we're going to get married by Christmas. Her parents have been quite nice to me," Henry answered while lowering his cup of tea. He looked at his little sister for a moment, trying to find words to the things he wanted to say.

"How are things with you and him?" he asked after a moment and Juliet bit her lip without even noticing it at first. When she did realise it, she let it go as quickly as she had started to bite it and looked simply into the similar eyes of her older brother.

"We're in a somewhat truce. I provide him information of things that are safe to tell and he lets me get away with any of the things he would Crucio others with," Juliet said quietly. There was a distance between them that hadn't been there prior to the attack and she knew things would never be the same again even if they tried hard.

"What did you do to him?" Juliet asked silently, and he knew whom she meant.

"You don't want to know," he stated silently, not even looking at her. Juliet frowned silently but didn't push for any information; she had already learned a long while ago that there were things that Henry needed to hide from her in order to let her sleep at night, in order to let her act normally around other people.

For a long while, around the time she had been just a child, Juliet couldn't believe that even Henry made things that were questionable. The older she grew the more she started to see the side of him that was very deep, the side that was the dark and cold person Henry had been just a few weeks earlier. He had killed someone because they had hurt his little sister. Who knew what else he would do for his family?

"Do you regret it?" Juliet asked, trying to understand it.

"No," he stated, and she didn't say anything else.

They returned to the packing.

* * *

The Riddle Manor was not as bad as a place to live as Juliet had expected. Of course, living with an egoistic mass-murderer who had serious problems with certain ethnical groups had its problems, but the house itself was very nice. The garden was large and had lots of corners to hide oneself in, the library had enough books to keep Juliet from complaining and she had received a nice room on the top floor with a view into East. She usually woke up early in the morning with the sun, enjoying the silence of the house around that time. It had turned out that the sarcastic brat some might call a Dark Lord was a very nocturnal being and rarely woke before ten, leaving her at least three hours completely for herself.

During those three hours Juliet usually went out for a run in the outskirts of the small village of Little Hangleton where everyone seemed to know everyone, had a nice long shower, kept in contact with her friends via letters and sometimes flew a bit in her animagus form. Those three hours were completely her own time, and after he woke, she usually went downstairs to sit in the dining room and eat breakfast with the man who hated waking up and never seemed to have enough of complaining about sunlight and birds singing.

"You know, if it's as bad as you claim it to be, you could always move to Antarctica. I heard it's pretty dark for half a year in there. The penguins might turn out to be very loyal minions, also," she had noted one morning and had received a glare so cold she knew even Severus couldn't beat it.

Their life together was somewhat peaceful. They shared their meals together, had conversations about books and argued about things and sometimes, very rarely, Juliet felt like she could get used to such life. There were Death Eater meetings, but she always kept to her room when those were taking place. He complained about their idiocy quite often and Juliet listened to it, adding names into her mental list, trying to remember every Death Eater there was.

He didn't let her meet her friends before the wedding. Actually, he didn't let her leave the area of Little Hangleton unless it was to meet with her brother, which was quite absurd seeing as she had a wedding to plan for. When Juliet had pointed this out, he had just looked at her for a long time before saying that he would take care of the practical parts as long as she gave him detailed plans of what she wanted. He also mentioned that she had seemed quite nonchalant of what their wedding consisted of.

Juliet let him take over the plans that day, muttering about impossible control freaks. He chuckled when she stormed out of the room.  
However, there was one thing she didn't let him decide on: the wedding dress.

As much as he wanted everything to be under his control and know exactly what would take place at their wedding, she told him that the wedding dress was to be left for her and that he would just have to suck it up. He wasn't pleased. She walked out of that fight a winner and read through dozens of magazines about wizarding fashion before deciding that they made horrible wedding dresses, informing Tom about this and then proceeding to find muggle magazines when he rolled his eyes in the corner.

The Dark Lord didn't dare to protest in any other way after listening to the warnings of Death Eaters that were already married.

Finding that wedding dress had proved to be a huge headache. As Juliet sat by the dining table, throwing another magazine into the discarded pile, she felt like maybe she should just marry him wearing jeans. She hated the task and trying to find a dress that was practical, had a flattering cut and didn't make her look like a princess was starting to prove quite impossible.

"Still looking for the dress?" he chuckled behind her back and Juliet turned tiredly on the chair, looking at the man.

"Are you sure that I can't just wear black?" there was a pleading edge to her voice and he smiled like the god he was. Tom lowered his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her blue eyes, smiling all the time knowingly. Juliet wanted to bang her head against the wall and didn't feel like arguing with him.

"I am quite sure of that. Why? Are you becoming desperate? Should I take over this?" he smirked triumphantly and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"If you were to choose my dress it would be so unlike me that I would drown myself in the toilet before wearing it," she muttered and he laughed silently before pulling her up and against his chest. Juliet had found out that he quite enjoyed bothering her and keeping her against him, though she wasn't sure why exactly he enjoyed it. All she knew was that the man was a complete control freak.

"Did you have something to talk about or did you just want to mock me?" she asked tiredly from him, her body uncomfortably close to his and his hands resting on the curve of her back.

"I was just wondering when you would start to look for a place for the shop," he said simply, but Juliet guessed that he wanted to be clear of her plans before he did anything. She rolled her eyes and sat back down on the chair, him taking a seat at the one next to hers.

"Henry's already found a place in the beginning of Knockturn Alley and we just need to clean it, put everything in place and then open the place. It's not actually that hard," she shrugged as she started to skim through another wedding magazine. Juliet gently rubbed her temples, trying to ease her headache while he simply kept staring at her.

"Why are you so keen on having a normal life?" Tom asked after a moment and Juliet frowned.

"What do you mean?

"You are going to marry possibly the most influential person in Britain in a month's time and yet you plan for a normal job outside of politics or anything that would let you have power," the man said and Juliet abandoned the magazines, giving her full attention to him.

"I've never really liked to be in power. I can do so much more when I am hidden in shadows," she stated silently and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yet you have chosen not to," he said and she simply nodded her head. Both of them were silent for a couple of moments, looking at each other and trying to figure out what the other was thinking of. It was such a strange thought: they lived in a similar world yet their ideas and dreams seemed to be almost opposite. He wanted to take over the world and she just wanted to live a peaceful life without having people killing people left and right.

"Why do I have the feeling that we are just going to make each other insane and end up fighting constantly?" Juliet asked silently from Tom and the man shook his head, smiling at the question.

"At least I'm not the only one who feels like that," he muttered silently, as if saying it both to himself and to Juliet. She couldn't quite point out which one.

"There are worse people to get married with. I think you wouldn't enjoy spending the rest of your life with someone who didn't understand that you're quite keen on books and knowledge and that you spend way too much time just staring out of the window," he spoke and Juliet looked at him properly for a couple of moments.

She hadn't realised how well he seemed to know her and how well she could read him. It was quite frightening.

"I'll go have some tea. Do you want a cup?"

And just like that she brushed her worries away.

* * *

Juliet knew it was a bad idea even before she decided to put it in action. She knew Tom would make her pay for it later on and she knew that it could get quite painful, yet she decided to show the finger at Fate and put the plan in action.

So, three days before the wedding would take place, Juliet very carefully put on silencing spells on herself, climbed out of her window and sneaked out of the Manor, disapparated right outside the wards and almost laughed in joy when she realised the she could have the night entirely for herself.

She quickly made her way towards Severus's home and knocked on the door three times, waiting anxiously to see her best friend. It had been two months since she had seen anyone else than Tom, Henry or Grace and she had been so sick of sitting around at the manor all day that simply being somewhere else was a great adventure.

Severus opened the door and she grinned at the stunned look on his face. "I have this extremely stupid plan that involves firewhiskey, some Gryffindors, a cabin in Scotland and waking up tomorrow morning in a sofa, being tangled into someone else," she spoke quickly and Severus grinned.

"Sounds lovely," he answered her. He quickly said goodbye to his mother, took hold of Juliet's hand and they made their way towards Lily's home, talking excitedly about anything else than her wedding. He told her about some new potions projects and she threw in a couple of ideas, and he listened to her suggestions with a smile on his face. Sooner than they noticed, they stood in front of the Evans' door and let go of each others hand, waiting for someone to open the door.

"Jules! Sev! What are you doing here?" Lily asked from them as she opened the door and Juliet noted how her bright red hair was a bit disheveled. After a moment James Potter took a glance at them, his hair even messier than it was normally. Juliet's eyebrows rose as she looked at the couple.

"Well, I had this idea of a night filled with firewhiskey and stupid drinking games while enjoying my last moments of freedom, but if you are too busy, we'll gladly leave you alone and find other people to join us," Juliet winked and Lily had the decency to blush while Potter just laughed it off.

"Oh, where are we going?" he asked excitedly and Lily pushed him in the ribs.

"I own a small cabin in Scotland. My fiancé doesn't know about it and there are no neighbours in the range of ten miles, so we can be as loud as we want," Juliet told them and she heard Severus snort.

"Purebloods," he muttered silently and Juliet smiled sheepishly.

"So, we'll have to get the Blacks and then Remus and then there's everyone we need for tonight," she spoke out loud and James and Lily looked at each other.

"I'll go get Sirius and Remus. See you at the park in front of Grimmauld Place," James shrugged and kissed Lily on the cheek. Severus didn't say anything as he pressed past him and apparated after checking that none of the neighbours were looking out to the street. Juliet apparated Lily to the Black house, seeing as she had never visited the place and left Severus and Lily in the park before walking to the door of the Black House and knocking on it expectantly.

A small house-elf opened the door and bowed to Juliet. "Is master Regulus home?" she asked from the elf.

"Master Regulus is in his room. Kreacher is to get master Regulus. Who is miss?" the elf, Kreacher, looked at her.

"Tell him it is Juliet Adder and that I wish to go out with him tonight," she told the elf and it bowed deeply, apparating away from the hallway. Juliet was left to stand in the dark and after a moment she heard hurried footsteps hitting the stairs.

"So you finally broke free," Regulus grinned and Juliet laughed.

"It would be such a shame if I missed having a party before marrying that arse," she winked and he laughed when he opened the door, letting her step through it first and then joining everyone in the park. James had arrived with Remus and Sirius and they were fooling around while Lily seemed ready to bang her head against a tree. Severus wore an indifferent look on his face but into Slytherin eyes it was clear that he was relieved that Juliet and Regulus arrived.

"You haven't killed them yet?" Juliet asked from him mock-confusedly and the man shrugged.

"Too many witnesses. If I fired the killing curse at them out in public even you couldn't talk me out of it," he just shrugged and Regulus masked his laughter as a cough. The Gryffindors stopped and stared at the Slytherins in bewilderment.

"We could always break you out of Azkaban," Regulus smiled and Severus rolled his eyes.

"How would you do that?" the oldest Slytherin asked and Juliet acted like she was pondering on it.

"Well, first we would need to train the giant squid to listen to our commands..." she started and Regulus couldn't help but start to laugh at it. Severus snorted and the Gryffindors stared at them.

"You were joking?" Sirius asked confusedly. Juliet and Severus shared a look.

"Of course not. Regulus simply is just not as developed mentally as the others," she shrugged and hearing Regulus's complaint smirked. She took a bow out of her backpack and then held it on. Everyone pressed their fingers to it and Juliet silently looked at it.

"Paper rose," she said, and the portkey took them into Scotland. Juliet gently guided it with her magic, letting the group pass through the wards and making sure that everyone else let go of the portkey before she landed gracefully on the ground next to smirking Severus who looked at the pile on the floor.

"Get up whenever you feel like it," Juliet chuckled as she looked at the disentangled limbs and walked to the other end of the room, into the small kitchenette and opening the cupboard doors and pulling out many bottles of firewhiskey and some glasses. Severus leaned casually against the counter and looked at her.

"So, you're getting married on Saturday," he started and Juliet nodded her head tiredly.

"I still haven't quite realised it," she confessed silently and listened to the cursing of the other when they tried to get up from the floor.

"Nervous?" he asked and a small smile rose on her lips.

"Would you be in my situation?"

Severus was silent for a moment.

"Well, considering that I don't even bend that way and that he gives me the creeps, yes, I'd be pretty nervous." Juliet met his eyes and smiled at him warmly.

"Oi! You two! Stop flirting with each other and lend us a hand!" Regulus moaned from the bottom of the pile and they quickly went over to help them out. In a moment everyone was sitting comfortably around the cottage, the glasses were being filled and Juliet raised her own glass first.

"For Juliet and the farce one might call a marriage," Regulus raised his glass and Juliet showed her tongue at him. The Gryffindors looked curious.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, looking between Juliet, Regulus and Severus. The trio shared a silent look and Juliet sipped her whiskey, enjoying the burn it caused in her stomach.

"It's complicated. Really, really complicated," Juliet stated silently. She thought for a moment what more to tell them. "There is this old law, I guess from the 15th century, that states that the oldest man in a pureblood family has the power to tell the females of this line who to marry. The oldest in our line is my second cousin, my only other living relative other than Henry. Long story short, he used this law to force me to marry him."

The looks on the Gryffindors' faces were precious. Juliet sipped a bit more of her firewhiskey.

"So you are just going to marry some pompous arse and not even fight?" Lily asked from her and Juliet had a hard time in hiding the small smile that tried to reach her lips. She noticed Severus seemed to have the same problem.

"No, I'm not. I intend to make him question why he ever thought marrying me was a good idea."

Regulus and Severus looked at each other and grinned in a knowing manner. Juliet poured firewhiskey to her own glass, enjoying the feeling of warmth inside herself as she looked at her friends.

"Who's in for a round of 'truth or dare'?" she asked brightly from them and Regulus grinned cunningly.

"Are you sure you want to play that game with Gryffindors? They might be shocked by the things that will surface," Regulus noted brightly, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Juliet knew where that look had come from seeing as Sirius had the same one on his face.

"We should first lay some rules that we won't violate anyone's unbreakable vows or contracts," Severus noted silently while looking at the roof. Juliet nodded her head.

"Well, that rules out any sexual dares from me and speaking about the great arse," she noted and Severus snorted.

"Only that little?" he teased her and Juliet shook her head.

"Then there are the unbreakable vows with Henry, which include talking about silverwork and clockwork and other things I doubt you'd ask about," she thought about it for a moment. "That should be all from me."

The Gryffindors stared at her for a long while. Juliet simply raised her eyebrow at them.

"How about we make a vow that anything said in this room won't leave it?" Remus cleared his throat and the Slytherins looked at each other, surprised.

"Did a Gryffindor just say something intelligent?" Severus asked from Regulus.

"I think so," Regulus answered with a shocked voice. Juliet rolled her eyes.

"Hands on a pile, please."

For a moment there was some chaos when everyone tried to have their hand in a pile, but after a while everyone had their hand in it and Juliet took her wand to her other hand, pressing it in top of everyone's hands.

"I solemnly swear I will not talk of this night later to anyone else who isn't in this room at this very moment, I will not hint at the happenings around this cabin to anyone who doesn't directly ask and I will not let them know of any secrets revealed this night." A golden band was wrapped around everybody's hand and it faded away after a moment. Juliet put her wand back into her pocket and they let their hands fall back against their bodies.

A smirk rose into Lily's lips.

"This is going to be fun," she said with a gleam in her eyes and Juliet grinned back at her.

In a few short minutes, they had taken seats and grabbed an empty bottle in the middle of their small circle and Juliet was the first one to spin. Every question seemed to turn more and more ridiculous and even though some of the dares were outright embarrassing, Juliet enjoyed it all.

She had never had so much fun in her whole life.

The fun ended next morning when Juliet woke up to the worst hangover of her whole life. Some point during the previous night, she had passed out in between Severus and Regulus and the younger boy was hugging her waist while the older had passed out on the sofa with her head in his lap. Juliet blearily opened her eyes and looked at the room that seemed to be swinging and noticed the small house-elf in there.

"Pepper? What are you doing in here?" she asked tiredly with a small voice from the elf and it jumped into the air, looking scared.

"Master Henry told Pepper to go to mistress Juliet. Master says to bring hangover potions and make food for mistress and friends," the elf explained to her and Juliet blinked a couple of times before slowly nodding her head.

"Did my fiancé come to visit?" Juliet asked from the elf and it nodded its head.

She groaned.

Tom was going to kill her.


	21. Chapter 20: The Whole World Is Mine

**A/N: **So, I no longer have any work to do. Of course I'm writing Camp NaNo alongside with this fanfic, but I still believe I have enough time to write this one since I only try to write 2000 words per day. Changing between languages certainly isn't easy, but I'll manage.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Carefully slipping from under Regulus's hands, untangling herself from his limbs and then carefully drinking the potion on the table Juliet knew quite well what could happen if she wasn't quick to return back into Riddle Manor. On the other hand, she didn't want to leave her friends to stay at the cabin without any message from her and not knowing what had happened. She could of course ask Pepper to relay her message, but it just didn't feel like a good plan.

Silently, Juliet moved into the small kitchen area and took hold of a tea cup, looking over at the sleeping people while chewing her lip. Pepper was still making food for them, silently and seemingly effortlessly just like any other house-elf would have done. It was sad that tings that used to be so simple were now crashing down in a pile of differences between her past and present lives. She missed the mornings in September when it rained and the air was sweet with the smell of petrichor. She missed the nights in December when the snow piled around the small villa and wrapped the mountains in a veil. She missed the midnight sun and staying awake the whole night with her brother.

Juliet sighed tiredly as she slowly made her way back on the sofa and she gently pushed Regulus awake while offering him a bottle of the potion. The young boy took it gratefully and drank it all the while looking at her face, trying to find out what was making her so nervous. Juliet casted a silencing charm around them as Regulus sat up, rubbing his forehead.

"He's pissed off, isn't he?" Regulus asked from her, knowing the answer full well. Juliet only nodded her head while drinking her tea, looking at the other people in the room.

"I need to go back soon. It's easier not to wake up the Gryffindors," she stated silently and there was an understanding look in Regulus's eyes. Pepper brought Regulus a strong cup of black coffee and the boy drank it like it was pumpkin juice. Juliet silently woke Severus and he took one of the potions while joining the other two on their way outside. The soft snores coming from Sirius and James indicated that they would be sleeping for a while still.

Juliet sat down on the porch and rubbed her temples. "My life is a mess," she sighed tiredly and Severus smiled.

"That is an understatement," he answered and Juliet just shook her head while sighing.

"I think I should go back before making him any angrier. I guess I'll see you at the wedding. Will you tell the Gryffindors?" Juliet asked from them and the two boys glanced at each other quickly before saying anything.

"Do you want us to explain the situation to them?" Regulus asked gently from her. She thought about it for a moment.

"Tell them... tell them only parts of the truth. I can't afford to let them know the entire truth," she muttered and Severus nodded his head. Juliet rose from the steps, glanced at each of the boys and disapparated.

* * *

He had been angry. There was no way around it, and Juliet could only blame herself for disappearing like that. She kept thinking that if she had left him a note, he wouldn't have been so cold and cruel for her for the past two days.

It didn't matter anymore, of course. They were going to get married, and that was it. No pretty words whispered in the evenings, no smiles between them, no gentle touches, just the coldness that he pushed towards her. The was no point in trying to say it wasn't like that, since they both knew that neither would trust the other enough to ever be entirely comfortable with them. He could never love her and she would never truly know if it was safe for her to be close to him.

All she could do was to close her eyes and step into the unknown.

So, she pulled on the white wedding dress, closed the buttons with magic and the stared herself from the mirror for a couple of moments, trying to understand the fact that in less than three hours she would be married probably for the rest of her life. Considering whom she was marrying, she wouldn't probably live that long.

Juliet pulled the icy blue ribbon from the dressing table and silently wrapped it around her waist, tying it on her left side and making sure the ends weren't too different in length. Henry and Grace wouldn't come for the wedding and she only had Severus and Regulus to speak to during the whole night. She could trust no one else in there, and it just reminded her how her life was going to be after a moment.

Sitting down on the bench in front of the dressing table she absent-mindedly wondered if the wedding would go as well as Tom wanted it to go. It seemed unlikely, seeing as the number of guests had only risen during the past months up to four hundred, but maybe they would understand to behave their selves. At least she hoped so.

Juliet quickly brushed her hair and started to form the bun on the base of her neck. She wished that there would be at least someone else in the room just that she wouldn't need to be alone, but it was an empty wish. All of the house-elves were preparing the farce one might call a wedding; it wasn't safe for any of her female friends to join her and her mother...

She wondered silently what her mother would have said about the situation. They would have probably tried to save her, but on the other hand, if they were still alive, she wouldn't be in such trouble.

She wished she had the Resurrection stone so that she could even speak with them once before selling herself to someone else.

As if it was a complex ritual, she finished doing her hair, put on makeup and put on the jewellery, all the time not daring to meet her own eyes. She knew they would think of her as beautiful, just like someone that powerful deserved: she just wished they would understand that there was more to her, that there was more than just the shell that everyone else saw. Severus had seen inside her mind a couple of times when she had been teaching him Legilimency, and Regulus just seemed to understand what her life was about. They both knew about expectations that were impossible to fulfil, and it just broke her hear that she would need to fake their deaths in order to save them, possibly not seeing one of her best friends in years just to make sure he was safe. To know how much she was giving up for everyone else, to know how little they would appreciate it after the war... It broke her heart.

She put on her fake smile and rose from the stool, looking like some strange beauty from a strange land, and nothing more than just that.

She walked down the idle alone. She looked directly in front of her at a blank spot on the wall while the man in front of them prepared the ritual that would bond them for life. She said 'I do' when they wanted her to say so and kept that smile on her lips. She accepted the light kiss against her lips, a seal for their marriage, without saying anything, and just like that she stopped being Juliet Adder and became Juliet Riddle, the wife of the Dark Lord.

And then there were faces, dozens of faces upon dozens of faces, and she was greeting them, accepting congratulations from them, listening to the slight conversations between them and her husband, and suddenly, time stopped and she stared into her reflection from the window, seeing exactly what she had become, and she hated it with her whole heart more than anything else in the whole world.

She danced with him, and with other people, some she recognised and some she didn't, and then she was dancing with him again. He was holding her a bit too tightly, a bit too close, but she didn't say anything about it. He was holding her and dancing with her, not even talking, only dancing. There was some comfort in being hold like that, she supposed: after all, not many people had held her in her life, and even less had cared for her on some level. Juliet knew he could never love her nor feel affectionate for her, but her cared about her in his own, twisted way. It was better than nothing.

"How has your evening been?" Tom asked from her, and she quickly glanced into his eyes.

"I have lived through far worse and far better days during my life," she answered simply and he chuckled at the notice.

"Somehow I just knew you were going to answer that."

They looked each other, their eyes met for a moment, and for that very short moment, that passing moment when their eyes met, Juliet could see something in his eyes. She couldn't say what it was, but it reminded her of something. It was not affection nor was it hatred; it simply was... a look. There was no other way to describe it: there had been an intelligent look in his eyes, something that reminded her of the was a baby would look at other people. It was full of hidden knowledge, but it was a more human look than she had ever seen in his eyes. And it made her feel oddly detached.

How was she going to survive the marriage if he looked at her like he was completely human? How could she hate him if the small part of his shrivelled soul was still so full of emotions he wouldn't admit to exist? It was hard to breathe: it was hard to remember that there were four hundred people looking at them. It was hard to think about the fact that he was a human, no matter how much he had tried to make himself immortal, no matter how many times he had split his soul in half.

"It's not nice to look inside someone's mind without their consent, especially if that someone is your significant other," she spoke silently, lowering her eyes and staring at his collarbones, or more accurately, the black robe covering them. She didn't know what else to do. There was no way that she would let him see inside her own mind and see how nervous she was of the coming night, of the fact that this night would start three years of constant stress on her part.

"Darling, I wouldn't dare to use Legilimency on you. I am not suicidal," he noted amusedly and Juliet had to bite her inner cheek.

"Oh please, you are a big bad Dark Lord. There's nothing that's holding you back right now," she said silently and he chuckled silently.

"Behind every great man there is a woman making sure that the man never steps out of line back at home," he noted and Juliet couldn't hold the smirk back.

"Never call a centaur horse and never make your wife angry at you. Especially if she is pregnant," she smiled and she could practically feel how he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Am I correct in assuming that your father taught that to your brother some time ago?" he asked and Juliet nodded her head. He snorted so silently no one else could hear him and Juliet bit her lip, still dancing very close to him. It was a slow, swinging waltz and dancing in his arms seemed so easy. Juliet guessed that he had probably made sure very early in his life that he could pass as a pureblood. It was likely that she was the only other person in the room that knew of his heritage.

For them he was Lord Voldemort, a dark lord whose ideal was a world free of muggles, who had dappled deeper into the Dark Arts than anyone else, who was interested in learning anything the world had to offer, who was psychopathic and cruel. For her he was Tom Marvolo Riddle, a bright yet a slightly disturbing man who was possessive, jealous and a control freak, but who cared for her. He was a man who kept his promises, a man that one could trust when he said something, someone she could have conversations of complicated matters. She didn't love him. Couldn't. Wouldn't. There was no way that she would let him get under her skin in such a way.

She had to remind herself of it too often for her liking. After all, he had understood after her attack in his own, peculiar way, not pushing her about. He was sarcastic and annoying sometimes, and outright rude if he slept too little, but he was Tom. With the less than imperfect hair when he woke up in the morning, with the way his eyes glistened when she said something that he found amusing, with the way he spoke to her as an equal and not to someone who was so much younger that they could possibly not understand about the world. He didn't look much younger than thirty with the way he had dabbled with the Dark Arts, but his knowledge made him seem much older and wiser. And Juliet found that he was an interesting personality, a study of a human with multiple aspects generalised. He was everything one could possibly be, and there were still sides of him that she had just begun to find out about. It was an interesting journey, and she was willing to continue it.

The song ended and they nodded their heads to each other, and Juliet was swept into another dance with someone she didn't recognise. She memorised the face quickly, exchanged pleasantries with the man, spoke with him about unimportant things and when the song ended, she quickly dissolved from the dance floor and hid herself in an alcove by the wall. The manor where their wedding had been arranged at was a perfect place for someone to hide at, since there were so many corridors and alcoves and places where one could observe the room while being hidden by the inquiring eyes of the others. Tired of dancing Juliet leaned against the wall and looked as Tom walked around the stage of the little play they had put up for his followers and talked with Death Eaters she had noticed to be high in his ranks. It seemed like he was giving them tasks, sometimes possibly asking from them something, and Juliet guessed that they were the security at their wedding in case someone would come crash it.

During the whole night she had not spoken to Severus or to Regulus. She wanted to see them, to say at least something to them, but she knew better than anyone else that it might not have been such a good idea. She looked through the room and saw them together, Severus standing tall in his robes, Regulus looking like the proper pureblood heir to an Ancient and Most Noble House. They seemed to enjoy the wedding much more than she did.

Severus turned his head, maybe on instinct, maybe just glancing around the large ballroom, but he met her eyes for a moment and nodded his head into her direction. The older man said something to the younger one and the younger one nodded his head, looking also into her direction. She met Regulus's eyes also, smiling slightly at both of her friends and nodded her head. They turned away from her in order to not raise suspicion.

All alone in her little corner of the world where only her closest friends knew where she was, surrounded by people she barely even could recognise, she realised that that was going to be her life from that moment on. The thought wasn't as shocking as it would have been just a year earlier: after all, almost everything in her life had changed.

"Are you going to hide here for a bit longer or are you going to enjoy the party?" Tom suddenly came into her small alcove, smirking at the look in her eyes. He hid himself in the shadows and looked at her expectantly, enjoying the confusion he had caused in her. Juliet wasn't sure at all where he had come from or how he had found her so soon, but it was still something she could expect from him.

"I'm just resting for a couple of minutes. Most men don't seem to understand that dancing in high heels is not as easy as one would think it to be," Juliet simply answered him and he smiled back at her in his very own mischievous way. It reminded her a bit of the way the Marauders smiled just before they pulled off a massive prank, something that would surely cause Professor McGonagall to have an aneurysm.

"You could always be the nature child you were born as and throw the shoes away and dance barefoot," his eyes twinkled in amusement. Juliet thought about it for a moment.

It was worth it, and she laid her hand on his shoulder, and he froze before he saw her lifting the hem of her skirt a bit and stepping out of her shoes. The look upon his face was just precious. It seemed like he had not really expected her to do so and Juliet winked at him.

"It was your idea," she said cheekily and his eyes positively sparkled in amusement.

"I didn't expect you to truly take off your shoes," he admitted after a moment. Juliet simply smirked at the comment and removed her hand from his shoulder, taking the shoes into her hands, summoned a house-elf and gave them to it before giving him an answer.

"Sometimes I'm just like a Gryffindor. You can never know when I'll find an idea something that seems like a fine thing to put in action," she confessed. He simply shook his head.

"Oh I've noticed. Sometimes I even wonder why the Sorting Hat put you in Slytherin when you would have done so well in Gryffindor or even in Ravenclaw," he rolled his eyes and Juliet looked him into the eye.

"I threatened to burn it if it even thought about another house," she smirked and walked out of the alcove alongside with her new husband. The evening was already coming to an end and it was time for the last few songs. She knew he was going to dance with her until they left back to their home, until she would finally have some time to breathe and realise that she actually was Mrs Riddle nowadays and not Miss Adder.

He held her closer than even before, tight around his chest. It felt oddly comforting and familiar to be like it, when no one had ever held her like that in her life before. Not even Severus when she had taught him to dance, not even Regulus when he had wrapped his arms around her a couple of nights earlier. He was the first one to keep her under his arms like it was her place, like she would be safe in there. The hugs she had received were either a comfort or a greeting: never before had they been an unspoken promise of safety.

It was odd that he would receive such a promise from him.

She never said anything to him about it.

* * *

Looking around the small shop Juliet felt pride inside herself. She had known ever since she was a child that she would become a silversmith, but now it seemed to be real. Now it seemed like she really was one, with the jewellery lying beneath the glass counters and the clocks ticking on the walls under silencing charms. The shop wasn't too deep into Knockturn Alley to scare of the light and neutral wizards and witches, but it wasn't either too close to Diagon Alley to vanish off the darker aligned people. In fact, it was around the 'twilight zone', the bottleneck leading to Knockturn Alley. The place was just perfect for her plans.

Having a shop meant that she would have something of her own to do, something to focus on during to war to clear her head of thoughts that would otherwise keep her awake during the nights. She would have a job that demanded perfection, creativity and a steady hand, something that needed every single drop of attention you could possibly give. There would always be new designs to draw, new ways to work on the silver, new things to learn. She would always have it with her, something that was completely her own in a world where he owned her.

Finally, she walked to the door and opened the shutters, letting the September sun inside. She opened the door to the alley, glanced at the sign hanging over her head and smiled silently in the comfortable silence the shop provided. She sat down on a stool behind the counter, took out a notebook and a pencil (something she had found extremely useful a long while ago since trying to erase ink even with magic was a pain in the bottom) and started to draw, sketching new ideas every now and then.

It took less than half an hour for the first customer to come inside. A young couple, holding hands and smiling shyly looked around the shop and Juliet could easily sense how in love they just were. One could see it from the way that their fingers brushed each other's, how they glanced at each other and smiled a bit more brightly for a moment. Everything in them just screamed how much in love they were.

"Hello," Juliet smiled at the couple and they smiled back at her. "Are you looking for a ring?" she asked from them, rising from her stool and walking directly in front of them, ready to serve them. The couple glanced at each other quickly and she bit her lip nervously.

"Yes," he said gently, brushing her fingers. The woman looked at him, licking her lips quickly.

"We were thinking about something with a pearl," she said silently. Juliet opened the lock of the counter with just a brush of magic and took the rings out for them to look at.

"Pearls aren't that common anymore. The common trend seems to be for small stones and simple designs, but I will gladly make rings from draft if you can't find one that pleases you both," she let them look at the rings for a moment and have silent conversations. Henry had explained her that it was always better to be around for help if the customer so wished, but to let them decide for it.

After a moment they looked at her. "We'd like to have this one," the man said gently and pointed Juliet the simple ring with two, different coloured pearls in it. She nodded her head at the couple, took the ring into his hand and then took her wand out.

"The price includes charms from stopping the silver from darkening, an automatic resizing charm and a modification of the summoning charm that always makes the ring appear in the box it was sold if the ring is 10 miles away from the owner. The box can only be summoned by the one who has worn it as a sign of love," she explained to the couple while pressing her wand at the silver, let her wand glow and then joined the ring with the woman. After the glow had faded she looked at the couple.

"I can also add protective charms on the ring that will at least protect a possible baby from any magical attacks. They will work like a minor shield that will protect from spells that are not too strong and that are meant to either hurt or to destroy. The bad side in them is that they have to be bounded to the owner with a blood ritual," she told the couple and the woman looked like she was deep in thought.

"I'd suggest you take the charm. These are dangerous times and it's better to be safe than sorry," Juliet said silently, looking deep into their eyes, and finally the other woman looked at her.

"We'll take the extra protection," the woman said and gave her hand to Juliet. The silversmith quickly made a small wound on the woman's finger, let the blood hit the ring and spoke softly the words that could turn into well needed protection for at least one person during this war, something that would help them.


	22. Chapter 21: These Things Are Wrong

**A/N: **Deciding to participate in Camp NaNo may have been one of my worst decisions thus far. I haven't had much time to write ANM and I'm not even progressing that well in the other project. Sigh.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

**TRIGGER WARNINGS: TALK OF SEX, MINOR TORTURE, MENTAL REACTIONS TO TORTURE**

* * *

The autumn passed. Soon enough snow fell and other people started to get ready for Yuletide. Many people wandered into her shop and bought jewellery for their loved ones, and all in all, it seemed like the war wasn't affecting them all that much.

Juliet, however, knew better. Having a first row seat into the Dark Lord's plans and already knowing most of the future, she looked carefully for signs of changing anything at all. Everything thus far seemed like going by the plan, but she knew how dangerous it was to meddle with time. If something happened for the future, she would end up avoiding the much younger version of herself in a couple of years' time.

That was if she made it that far.

Tom had been annoyed by the fact that she hadn't still fallen pregnant. According to some book he had read on healing and magical injuries, there shouldn't be anything stopping her from getting pregnant.

Juliet had pointed out that the Gaunt family had had a fair share of inbreeding in order to 'keep the blood pure', and that probably was causing the problems with her ability have children in the first place. When he had sneered and asked why there seemed to be none of these problems on the Adder side, she smiled sweetly and pointed out that most of the witches that married into the family had been born either in France, Germany or the Nordics.

He had been royally pissed off that day. Juliet felt bad after learning that some muggles had paid for her cheek.

At the moment she was sitting on their small library and working on her plan to save all her friends. She knew there were a lot of people that had disappeared or died during the war, and she was starting to feel like she should save more people than just the ones she had cared about.

Thus far she had added the Prewett twins on her list. She knew that during 1997 there would be a lot of deaths that she would have to stop from happening, and she had a minor idea of who were going to die. She knew that it was a statistical fact that a lot of Gryffindors would go down fighting and the so-called 'Order of the Phoenix' would lose a lot of members.

She also remembered what had happened to Alice and Frank Longbottom and had decided that she would find something to help them. She knew that great amounts of being under _Crucio_ would cause nerve damage even in the brains and that some people had their mind shattered after such an experience. She would need to consult with Severus in order to find a way to make their Cure work for brains and changed it into a form that one could drink it safely.

She also needed to find a place big enough to hide all those people that were supposed to die. The Adders had quite a collection of estates all around the British Islands and most had been already scratched over since they weren't big enough. There was, however, a small castle in northern Scotland that no one had any idea of that could work. It seemed like it was better hidden than even the small cabin on the other side of Scotland and that the wards could even beat the ones around Hogwarts. The only problem seemed to be that the castle had been left unattended for a closer part of two hundred years and that she would need to work on repairing it alongside finding enough house-elves to take care of the place once people started to move in.

There weren't many people she had a chance to save. She didn't even know most of the Order members and doubted that Severus could inform her about them, especially since there was such a huge risk of her exposing anything to her husband. She could only try to save a couple of all those people who were going to die, and sometimes she felt extremely bad about it.

Rubbing her aching hands together she finally closed the book no one else could ever read. She had casted so many spells on it that it should be practically impossible for anyone to look at its direction and notice it, nevertheless think about it later. Only she knew the password to show the text on the pages and only she knew the password to open the book and even look at the blank pages.

She hid the small journal among the other books of their library and shuddered reading a couple of the titles by accident. Most were books about extremely dark magic, but some were about torture and other nice things her husband called his job.

There was only a week until Christmas Eve. The next week she would be working every day, but only a couple of hours during the afternoon on Christmas Eve for the husbands that had been too busy doing other things to buy their presents on time. Yuletide was the busiest season of the year and she didn't care much about Christmas anymore, not after she had written her name under the marriage contract. To be honest, Juliet had no idea if Tom wanted to celebrate Christmas and if he would, how they were going to celebrate it, so she just stuck to the plan of having a copy of an extremely rare and old book written by Grandpa Sal at her disposal.

Tom rarely came to her room, anyways. This evening, Juliet knew, he would come there and even though the thought had bothered her couple of months back, now she just didn't find the energy to care about such a matter. It was not something she needed to fight, and to be honest, Tom could be very charming and caring under certain circumstances.

Juliet had convinced herself that it was all about the pretty face the Dark Lord carried. She also hoped dearly that he wouldn't make her have sex with him once he looked like a cross-species between a snake and a human.

Or that he would have his old face back at that point. Really, changing the potion that much that he didn't look like the illegitimate son of a boa constrictor wouldn't hurt the future too much. She was quite convinced that he would not change his actions at all if he looked like a snake faced bastard or not.

Juliet silently wondered if someone had casted _Confundus_ or possibly a cheering charm on her to make her grin like a maniac. Quickly, she did her best to wipe off that smile, but there was still some amusement in her eyes as she left the library, walked up the stairs until reaching the fourth floor and then going into her room. She quickly removed her simple clothes (Tom didn't seem too bothered to see her wearing trousers every now and then) and walked into the luxurious bathroom to have a shower.

The warm water worked on her tense shoulders and she slowly relaxed under the running water. It was a sort of ritual for her every Sunday evening: she would have a long, hot shower and scrub herself entirely clean, then step out of the shower and wrap a way too soft white towel around herself, walk into her bedroom and see her husband waiting already for her.

He would almost be compassionate, caring and tender when it came to being so close to her. He would keep her close, talk with her after it, and be like a normal human being for a couple of moments. It almost confused her, the way they could have these small moments and then the next day he would kill someone without as much as blinking an eye.

She guessed it was simply because he didn't want to push her away. After all, she was quite a valuable asset to him with the big library she had at her disposal and the memory of hers. Losing her trust in any way could end up badly for him, seeing as she could travel in time and make sure that he was destroyed.

On the other hand, it all was starting to become very confusing for her. They didn't outright argue with each other, but they certainly weren't as close to each other as the Malfoys seemed to be. It was though more than she had expected her life to be: he was a very intelligent person, had much knowledge inside his head and was someone she could have talked for hours at a time. At the same time he frightened her, but it seemed like he kept that side of himself guarded away from her.

Juliet had seen a couple of times when he became angry. It was very frightening to see, the way his eyes turned dark and threatening, the way his whole body seemed to melt into the magic running around the room wildly. It was hard to even breathe in the same area; nevertheless act like nothing was wrong with her.

She had attended a couple of Death Eater meetings, always standing behind his back on his left side. She wore a black cloak with the hood hanging against her back every time she stood in front of his followers, looking like someone you should never cross. No one ever spoke to her. She was always the silent observer in those meetings and he would sometimes ask for her opinion on matters after those meetings, always seeming genuinely interested in what she had to say.

In a way, she was his personal consultant in matters that held the fate of the war, and she always made sure to steer the path towards the one she remembered. He sometimes still asked her about the future, but she always said very little about it. Rarely did she tell him anything, and by the look in his eyes she knew that he was suspecting something to happen.

What she wasn't sure of was if he thought that if it would happen to him or to someone else. A couple of times he had tried asking what would happen to her friends, but she had just looked at her lap for the longest time before answering him that they would be just fine.

He had then realised that she was not going to talk more about that subject, not with him at least, and somehow it had seemed to bother him. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed like he looked at her differently after that small conversation, like he had just realised how much the war affected her.

She returned to the moment with the water streaming down her body slowly, collecting her Occlumency shields in a calm manner. She always collected them before seeing him in such manner, just to make sure her mind wouldn't crack from anything extra. Having such control over herself helped to calm her nerves in a manner that nothing else seemed to beat, and having just that shower seemed to make her feel readier for the experience.

She simply locked her mind behind a barrier every time he wanted to consume her, every time he wanted to know every single one of her secrets. She hid those things because she knew how they could haunt her dreams if she let them.

So simply, she kept pushing her Occlumency walls even further.

* * *

The Thursday afternoon didn't look too different from anything they had experienced earlier. Someone had charmed the rain to turn into snow above Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and it looked positively wonderful in there. Juliet kept on serving customers and selling them jewellery and clocks, all the while hoping she could enjoy the time of the year when the magic seemed to be extraordinary.

Above all things, winter solstice was that day. Juliet had prepared a small ritual to strengthen her magic, something she hadn't told about to anyone. She knew Henry wouldn't approve of it, but she knew that doing the ritual would strengthen her enough so that she could endure longer periods under Cruciatus or other curses.

Hopefully, it would create the in-between stage between life and death where she could still move around and hopefully find someone to heal her before her magic ran out and she would completely die.

She had read about it in a book written by Amadeus Adder sometime around 1490. Amadeus had described it as the 'autem novam mortem' effect, and Juliet had snorted while first reading the name. It was clear that someone had had no imagination while naming the effect. Of course, the ritual allowed more time and made the person's death a lot slower, but she thought a more appropriate name would have been almost anything else.

On the other hand, the name sounded quite nice. It had a certain flow in it.

The most important part in the ritual was that she would have to sacrifice a bit of her blood and her magic into a container she would have to carry around all the time. She had already decided on to add the spell into her wedding band seeing as removing it would be impossible, but the nature of the spell had made her a bit wary. The ending result reminded her of what it was like to create a Horcrux, but the ritual didn't remind it at all. She would have to put the magic into the container, and the more she could give, the longer it would keep her alive. Her magic would replace itself with time, but she couldn't add anymore into the ring when she was finished with the ritual. She would have to feed a lot of her own blood in the process, but Blood Replenishing Potions had been invented centuries earlier.

All in all, the process would probably help her more than it would create harm. She could repeat the procedure later once she had used the first container, but she hoped she wouldn't need to do it twice.

The closer it came to six o'clock, the more nervous she started to become. She'd need at least an hour to prepare for the ritual, and she was supposed to start the procedure a bit after eight. She'd need to read the instructions through at least once more, to make sure she had understood everything correctly. Once she started it, there was no turning back. That seemed to be what made her the most nervous about the whole ordeal.

Finally, the last customer made their purchase and Juliet quickly closed the door behind him, putting everything back into their place, casting the protective enchantments again before quickly locking the shop down and apparating into Riddle Manor.

Not paying any mind to the voices that came from the library, she walked straight upstairs, took the book the ritual had been described in and started to read the instructions carefully. She had the potion at hand, courtesy of Severus (he had looked at her for a long while when she had asked for the potion but refused to ask any questions), a ritual knife close to her and a couple of candles to focus most of the energy into a circle around herself. Slipping past the library door and out of the back door, she quickly made her way into the hidden corner of the garden where no one could approach her that easily. She cast a glowing circle into the ground, stomping a path over it and laying the candles over it before walking inside the circle and lighting the candles with her magic.

With her wand in her hand, she focused onto drawing the runes into the snow. After being finished with them, she faced north and closed her eyes as she kneeled on the ground.

Softly chanting under her breath she took the ritual knife into her hands, letting her magic outside the shell she used to keep it under and cut the middle of her palm, pressing the diamond against it.

_"__Ut animam meam salvum in continente dabo eam, __  
u__t mea flamma remanebit meum sanguinem excurrit.  
Accipio novam mortem." _*

The blood flowed into the diamond and seeped into the silvery ring, and Juliet let her magic seep away with it. Repeating the spell seven times, she finally stopped chanting and noticed how dizzy she was feeling.

Removing her right palm from the ring and looking at the wound she quickly kissed it, the magic awakening inside herself and starting to heal the wound as she pressed her other hand against the snow, feeling the magic seeping from beneath the earth.

"Thank you," she whispered into the air and slowly rose, feeling very weak. She could sense that she had given away a lot of her magic into the ring and knew there was no chance at hiding it away from Tom, but at the moment she couldn't care that much.

Turning around, she met the biggest shock of her whole life.

Tom was standing behind her and looked at her with his eyebrows knitted together.

"That is quite dark magic for someone like you," he commented calmly and Juliet looked at the figure of her husband for a few minutes before realising that he had probably seen the whole ritual.

Her legs buckled and he caught her before she hit the ground. Pulling her aside from the ring of candles, he cast a warming charm over her and helped her walk towards the manor. She tried to walk on her own, but his arm was like an iron band around her wrist and she knew the chances were he would start by asking what the ritual exactly did. She guessed that he had some idea of it already, seeing as the git probably had studied enough Latin and blood rituals to have a faint clue of what she had done.

"Shouldn't you be yelling at some idiots how they can't do anything right?" she asked from him in a tired voice.

"Oh, I'm quite done with that today. We were just finishing when you tried to sneak out into the garden without me noticing. Remembering the last time I decided following you would be a good decision," he stated and sat her down on a chair in the dining room. A house-elf brought her a cup of tea and a Blood Replenishing Potion before she could even say anything and the look in his eyes made her drink the potion before she could object in any way.

"Mind explaining me what exactly was the meaning of that ritual?" he asked lightly from her, but she could hear the threat behind his words. Juliet looked into his dark eyes tiredly, rubbing her head and trying to ease the headache the ritual had caused her.

"It's a bit like creating a Horcrux," she stated silently, and he raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Not in the extent of ripping your soul in half, but more like taking pieces of your magic and life force and putting them into an object that will release them at your disposal right at the moment you are supposed to die," she explained, and he stared at for the longest time.

"That is practically like creating a Horcrux," he stated and Juliet frowned.

"It really isn't, Tom. It can't actually bring you back alive and it only works as long as there is still magic and blood in it," she explained. "They burn off quite quickly and it's only meant to be the last resort so to speak. It should be used only to have enough time to let someone heal you or restart your heart again."

He looked like he was going through this information in his head.

"How much magic and blood can one push into it? Could I drink a Blood Replenishing Potion during the ritual or would it just nullify it?" he asked from her and Juliet thought about it for a moment.

"You can push around half your magic into and it will still replenish in your body back into the same levels. As for the blood, I am not sure. I think it would be a lot safer just to go with the natural flow and then after the ritual is done, take the potion. There is no guarantee that it would work otherwise," she told him, and he nodded his head. Juliet drank her tea and enjoyed the warmth that spread inside her.

It had been the third time in her whole life when she had lost a huge amount of blood. She was feeling cold, her fingers looked still a bit waxy and there was sweat on her skin. She also felt a bit agitated, but at the moment she wasn't sure if it was caused by the blood loss or by her earlier memories.

After all, she had already nearly died by exsanguination two times in her life.

"Do we have any way to break into St. Mungo's?" she asked suddenly from him, looking at Tom over her cup of tea. He looked confused for a moment before he looked at her.

"We don't need to break in there, darling. There are enough Death Eaters working for me. Why?" he looked at her expectantly and Juliet bit her lip for a moment before answering him.

"Because I just had an idea," she said slowly, all the while thinking about it. He raised his eyebrows at him. Juliet bit her lips nervously. "I think I may have died already twice – once in 1962 and once in last June."

The look on his face was something between confused, irritated and disbelieving. Juliet looked at her cup of tea all the while he was deciding on what emotion he should embrace.

"And where did that idea come from?" he calmly asked from her, not really seemingly believing her. Juliet sipped her tea before answering him.

"How much can a small child lose blood before dying? I've lived through those memories enough times that I know how much blood I lost back in there. Thinking about last June, it's quite probable that my heart stopped and they managed to restart it back at St. Mungo's," she stated silently and he seemed to think about for a long while. There was no expression upon his face and Juliet nervously waited for him to say something at all.

"It would mean the contract is void," he simply said and Juliet nodded her head. There was an odd upon his face as he looked at her.

He moved faster than Juliet had seen everyone move during her life. The calmness was thrown off him and Juliet shifted sacredly away from her chair, closer to the door as he briskly walked from wall to wall while thinking about it.

"And you didn't think about this back in June?" he asked from her with a cold voice that scared Juliet.

"I didn't have much time to have a nervous breakdown by thinking something like that!" she tried to defend herself and he stopped, turned to her and narrowed his eyes. Juliet could just feel how close it was for him to lose control of himself and curse her.

"Do you have any idea of what this means?" he asked from her and from there Juliet knew that she should close her mind as soon as possible.

She started to pile mental defences upon her mind, all the while he turned angrier and angrier, and she buried herself into a dark corner inside her own mind.

"_Crucio_," the simple word rose from his lips easily. The curse hit her straight into the chest and suddenly, all her nerves seemed to explode in pain.

She bit her teeth together to stop herself from screaming, but that was the only piece of control she had over herself. She could feel the cool tears running down her burning cheeks and the way her body twitched and squirmed, but she never screamed. She couldn't let him know how much it hurt. She had to be strong, had to take the curse, because she had already known a long while before what her life as a married woman would be.

She stopped herself from screaming because no one had ever listened to them before.

Juliet had no idea how much time had passed, but she slowly realised the pain had lessened. She didn't move at all, just cried silently and tried to calm herself down before he would do anything else.

_It is fine. Everything is fine._

Wrapping her mental defences tighter around herself she stopped herself from listening his words, from noticing anything at all in the world, from moving at all. She wasn't anymore there, but in the orchard of the Adder House, during late May. The air was sweet with the fragrances from the blossoms and it was such a pretty day. It was warm, the sun was shining and she was walking there barefoot.

And in her mind, there were two sentences repeating over and over:

_It is fine. Everything is fine._

* * *

* In order to save my life, I will give it in a container,  
My flame will remain as my blood runs out.  
I receive a new death.


	23. Chapter 22: Voices In The Darkness

**A/N:** I should do so many things right now: record some covers for my YouTube channel, write that NaNo project and clean my room. This should be a vacation, not a working camp. This chapter is a bit shorter one, but the next one will hopefully have a bit more action. Let us hope I find some more time to do things, because right now I really, really need it.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

By the time morning had risen, she was already gone. Even though the Dark Lord tried to look for her, he couldn't find a sign of the woman that had disappeared some time during the previous night. Even though he told his minions to look for her, none could seem to find her.

It was as if the earth had swallowed her.

By the time the sun had set he knew already that she wouldn't come back unless she wanted to.

* * *

When Juliet had woken up after that night, she had decided to leave until she was forced to go back. She hoped that the marriage contract wasn't as effective and wouldn't start causing her trouble, and she hoped she could break it somehow. There had to be a way. There just had to.

So, she had taken her green backpack with her, stuffed her wand into a holster attached to her arm and simply climbed out of the window. First she would go to Gringotts and empty her trust vault, and then she would visit her shop and empty everything from there and leave no clues behind her. She knew _he_ would start to look for her when he noticed she was gone, and she had no will to stay close to him anymore. He had had his chance, and he had messed up.

Apparating right in front of Gringotts Juliet dragged herself inside the building, avoiding any unnecessary movements. Every muscle and joint ached in her body, but she had decided something and she was as stubborn as a Gryffindor when she decided something.

She gave her key at the goblin waiting on the front desk without saying anything, and the goblin just looked at her silently before nodding his head and leading her towards the carts. She recognised him as Bogrod, a goblin that was responsible for most of the older families' vaults back in Gringotts.

After a cart-ride down under London, they stood in front of Juliet's trust vault. Juliet glanced at the number 729 above the door silently and Bogrod slid his finger between the locks in the door before sliding her key into the hole that appeared.

The goblin stepped away and let Juliet walk into the vault. The piles of gold and silver greeted her and she looked around herself silently, not saying anything for a minute.

"I'll be emptying my vault this time. No one is to step in here, not even my brother," she told the goblin and its eyes glimmered in the torchlight.

"You'll be keeping the vault, madam?" Bogrod asked from her.

"I will," she stated silently while opening her backpack and taking out the small, black purse that she had placed an undetectable extension charm on a few years earlier. She spelled the money to move inside the purse and looked at the other artifices in the room.

There was a wooden box in the middle of the vault, and she walked there silently, looking at the box curiously. She remembered that Henry had moved it into her vault from their attic that previous summer, but she couldn't remember what was inside it.

Juliet opened it silently and looked at the photographs inside it. There must have been hundreds of them, and even though most were of her parents, some were of her other family members. She smiled silently as she looked at them and then closed the lid, shrunk the box and put it inside her backpack while looking around the vault once more.

There was nothing else in there. Most of the family jewels were in the actual Adder family vault much deeper under London and the rest were probably at the attic. Juliet walked out of the vault and looked at the goblin.

"How many galleons is it to cost for you to not open this door to anyone else until September 1997?" she asked from Bogrod, and the goblin looked at her curiously.

"That would be fifty galleons," the goblin said with a greedy look in his eyes, and Juliet didn't even bat an eye when she paid the price. The goblin nodded his head contently before closing the vault door again.

The ride back was uneventful. Juliet nodded her head at the goblin, pulled up the hood of her jacket and wandered off to Knockturn Alley all the while thinking of good places to hide at.

The first thought was the small cabin in Scotland, but too many people knew of it. She couldn't risk going in there. She couldn't also go to live in Devon with her brother since that would probably be the first place for him to look for her. Fleeing into Sweden could work seeing as they had purchased the villa back in the sixties, but on the other hand, it might have been a bit obvious to Henry.

She thought silently about the large castle back in Scotland and made her decision at the same time she stepped through the door into her shop. She took off the wards, walked into the back room and left the light on.

And suddenly, she could feel a presence in the night walking towards the door. She froze on her place and looked from the crack of door into the actual shop, waiting scared for the catastrophe that was surely going to take place in a moment.

And then, a man cloaked in dark stepped through the door, took off his hood and Juliet saw Severus's face. Her whole body relaxed almost instantly and she walked into the shop calmly, looking at Severus.

She brushed some dust off the counter and looked at Severus with an unreadable expression upon her face. "What can I do for you, Severus?" Juliet asked from him, and the man looked deep into her eyes.

"I need your help."

Juliet looked worriedly at the man who took out a small book from the inner pocket of his robe. "I found this potion some time ago, but I can't understand these notes in the margins. They seem to make no sense for me," he said silently and opened the book at the right place. Juliet looked at the text for a while before frowning and waving off the translation spell with her hand.

The text turned out to be in Danish. Juliet looked at the man in front of her. She quickly pulled out a pencil and some paper from beneath the counter and started to translate the potion recipe for Severus as quickly as she could, adding the notes for him.

"I have no idea how you have found this potion, but I hope that you aren't planning on anything stupid," she glanced at the man who was frowning while looking at her hands. Juliet quickly finished translating the recipe, gave the paper to Severus and then took out her wand. She spelled everything in the shop to start pack itself all the while Severus looked at her.

"What is wrong with your hands?" he asked from her, and Juliet only then realised how much they must have been shaking for him to notice such thing. Juliet bit her lip silently and looked as all the jewels and clocks packed themselves into boxes.

"I did something he didn't like about and you know what he is like when he is angry," she only stated silently, swishing her wand into the direction of the back room and saw as everything there started to move into boxes. The items from behind the counter went into one box in the backroom. Severus looked horrified at her words.

"What is your plan?" he asked from her and Juliet looked at her closest friend for a long while.

"I'm going to disappear," she stated.

"Won't the marriage contract stop you?" he asked from her, and Juliet bit her lip nervously.

"I'm not sure, but I may have died last June. I'll have to wait until Sunday night to know for sure, but I think it may have weakened the contract. I'm not going to risk anything too big, I'm just going to find a place to hide for myself and not take a part in this war," she spoke quickly. With a wave of her wand all the boxes in the room were shrunk and pulled onto the counter. Juliet quickly packed them into her backpack and glanced at Severus, who looked seriously at her.

"Will I ever see you again?" he asked, and Juliet stopped all movement for a moment. She took his hands into hers and stood there for a moment, looking deep into his eyes.

"If you ever need me, just send a Patronus and I'll answer it. You can give letters to Patroni and they will give the letter back to the one you send it for," she explained. "I'm going to hide until I'm not in so much trouble. I don't know when I'll come back, but I'll try to see you every now and then. I promise."

Severus simply nodded his head. "Do you need the potion?" he asked from her and Juliet looked at her shaking hands for a moment before turning back to him.

"I think I'll manage. Go back home and pretend nothing happened," she told him. He turned and walked at the door before turning once back.

"Be safe," he said, and then he was gone.

Juliet took off all the charms in the shop and then disapparated.

* * *

Juliet had never spent Christmas completely alone. Usually she was surrounded by friends, and once she had lost her parents, she had always spent the Yuletide at least with her brother. It bothered her that it would all change this year. It bothered her to know, that she would have no one else to spend time with until it was time for Regulus to disappear.

She sighed tiredly and tried to warm her frozen fingers by the fireplace. The castle was big, almost everything was covered in dust and cobwebs, and it just seemed to completely empty without anyone else in there. That castle should have had a continuing hustle and bustle. That castle should have been filled with people who were joking and talking and having fun. Instead she was in a common in a Scottish castle while trying to figure out how to properly perform the Fidelius charm all on her own. She knew she had to cast it over the castle and its grounds as soon as possible and erase all memories of the castle out of everyone's mind.

Right now she just felt tired. Her whole body ached, it had taken her hours of using her magic to clean the room so much that she could live in there, and she had had to apparate into a village on the other side of the country just to buy some food for herself. She'd have to find some house-elves for the castle as soon as possible, cast a whole bunch of protective enchantments in there, strengthen the wards as much as she could and then find out if the marriage contract was still valid. She had a feeling it might be a bit less effective than it should be, but she had no idea how much trouble it was going to cause her.

So, she simply took out a sleeping bag and a pillow from her backpack, spread them over the soft mattress close to the fire and unpacked all the small boxes she had taken with her earlier that day from the shop. She enlarged them, waved her wand and made them move against the walls, and then looked around in the room.

There were a couple of paintings on the walls, but the inhabitants were nowhere to be seen. She didn't feel comfortable sleeping when others could see her, but she also knew that all of the habitants in that castle had always been Slytherins, some more literally than others.

She was way too tired to think about those things, so she simply snug into her sleeping back, made sure her wand was just below her pillow and then closed her eyes in front of the crackling fire, trying to sleep at least a bit before she would have to start working on all the things that required her attention.

* * *

Sometime during the next night she, however, woke up to the feeling of being stared at. She opened her eyes discreetly and looked around herself, skimmed through the room with her magic, but found out that she was the only person in there. So, she simply rose and turned around, looking at the paintings and noticing a man looking at her. He was old, bearded, monkey like and held an expression that was extremely hard to read.

Salazar Slytherin.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, Professor Slytherin," she bowed her head at the painting, feeling a bit silly for doing so, but doing it nonetheless. She raised her head after the moment and the man looked at her.

"I assume you are one of those Adders," the old man said from his painting with certain disdain in his voice and Juliet smiled slightly. She had heard Henry speaking about the infamous mistrust Slytherin had had for her family, but she had never quite believed those stories to turn out to be so true.

"I got married last September, but an Adder is always an Adder," she stated lightly, and the Professor sat down on a chair in his painting. Juliet did the same in the room, choosing an emerald green wingback chair and looking expectantly at the man in the portrait.

"Why is it that after so many years there is finally someone in the castle again? The last I heard about your family was when they decided to move away from here," the man said while looking at her. Juliet brushed off some dust from her pants before raising her eyes at the Professor.

"I'm on the run from my husband. Do you happen to remember Tom Riddle? He opened the Chamber of Secrets back in the forties," she shrugged and the man raised his thick eyebrows at her.

"I certainly do remember him. I never thought of him being the type to get married," the Slytherin patriarch looked into her direction, and Juliet rubbed her forehead.

"I never thought I'd end up living in an abandoned Scottish castle but things happen," she stated calmly. Slytherin squinted as he looked at her.

"I believe I didn't catch your name," he said almost threateningly, and Juliet quickly squared her shoulders.

"Juliet Adder, sister of Henry Adder, daughter of Edgar Adder and Miriam Gaunt, granddaughter of Christopher Adder and Mortimer Gaunt. I believe Augusts Adder, my great-great-great-grandfather was the last person whom you would remember living in this castle," she told the man, and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Amadeus last lived here over 400 years ago," Slytherin stated and Juliet smiled.

"We are watchmakers. Sometime after your death our family figured out how to build time-turners that could move a person years into the past or into the future," Juliet spoke tiredly, feeling like she had not slept enough to have such a conversation. After a while she noticed that her hands were shaking again, and she quickly pulled them against her chest, trying to stop the involuntary movement.

"Why are you on the run? Why come here?" the man asked, and Juliet looked down to her lap before answering him.

"It's not longer safe to stay with him. I chose this place because I've seen the future and I want to change it, but I can't. I need to save some people from their deaths, and this was the safest place I could think of," she admitted, and the man looked particularly smug at her last words. After a moment of silence the portrait spoke again.

"Very well. I believe your words, and I think you are worthy of living in this castle. Are you planning on adding more enchantments around the castle?" the old man asked from her, and Juliet nodded her head eagerly. "The ward stone is located on the doorway of the Great Hall. It's the highest one in the arch," Slytherin told her and Juliet bowed her head.

"Thank you, Professor," she said politely and the man chuckled.

"You certainly are an interesting witch. I am no longer a Professor. You may simply call me Grandfather, if you so wish," the man said, and a brilliant smile rose on her lips. She had never really had that much family and being able to call someone a grandfather would be brilliant.

"Thank you, sir," she smiled at the painting and the man in it chuckled lightly.

"Go back to sleep, child. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

* * *

The next couple of days were long and very exhausting. The portrait of Salazar Slytherin followed Juliet around the castle, telling her about secret passages in there. When Juliet asked if she could simply draw a map of the castle, the man genuinely smiled and told her to go for it.

So, Juliet had started on drawing the outer walls and slowly adding rooms the time she covered more and more of the castle. She had spelled the parchment to never tear or the ink to never fade, and she was starting to think that she should add the map to show everyone in the castle. It could become quite handy if she didn't need to constantly beware of people standing on the other side of the corner.

The day her brother was supposed to get married she received a letter from him via Patronus telling her they had decided to postpone their wedding. Apparently Grace was feeling a bit anxious by the atmosphere in Great Britain and so they had decided to leave the country. He only said that they were going to live back in Sweden in their previous home, but it felt like a punch to the gut for Juliet. He was leaving England once again, but this time he was leaving her behind and taking someone else with him to hide in the country that she had fallen in love with.

It didn't feel fair.

She had learned a long time ago that life was never fair.

At the moment, she was mapping the northern side of the castle with Salazar's portrait following her, jumping from painting to another and keeping her company. Juliet had cleaned a part of the castle into such condition that she could spend time in there, and the next project was to find a bunch of unemployed house-elves, offer them work and bring them to Scotland.

The plan sounded too simple for her liking. The simpler the plan, the bigger the chance of a catastrophe.

She had found that the rooms surrounding the common room to be something she considered to be a comfortable place to live. The common room had a high ceiling and lots of light flowing in from the large windows, the chambers weren't too big but neither were they too small and it was located in the largest tower of the castle. The castle wasn't too big, only four floors and the cellar, but it was hidden very well from sight and was easy to defence. There were only a couple of entrances into the castle, but they were easy to protect by the cliff on the other side going down into the loch. The castle was located on a promontory and there was only one way leading there. Of course they would have to be wary of attacks coming from the air, but the castle was built in a way that protected its inhabitants well.

Juliet had spent the Sunday anxiously waiting for something to happen. She kept on monitoring herself, and when it slowly turned towards Monday, it felt like relief poured over her like a waterfall. She wasn't feeling any pain at the moment, there were no signs of the contract starting to cause problems to her and all in all, it seemed like she could get away with this part of the so-called unbreakable contract.

Monday morning she had woken up feeling a bit anxious, but she brushed it off as being worried about her brother. She had sent a Patronus to him asking if he and Grace were fine, and he had simply answered, that they were safe at the moment.

Juliet felt extremely guilty. If she hadn't decided to leave, Henry and Grace would still be safe. Now they had to move into another country, and it just seemed to make her feel even worse about the situation.

She could never save everybody, no matter how hard she fought, and she desperately prayed that there was still a miracle left for Lily Evans. There just had to be a way for her to save everyone.


	24. Chapter 23: A Buried Heart

**A/N: **Send help, inspiration to write is fleeting. Too many days of Camp NaNo still left. Running out of tea. About to catch a cold. Having major aches. How am I going to survive school again?

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

By late March, Juliet started to hate Scotland more than ever. It was cold, wet, it rained all the time and everything seemed grey and boring. The first two months had been spent being busy around the castle, working on repairing most of the damage alongside three house-elves she had found, but the more time passed, the more bored she became. The castle's library wasn't small by any means, but most of the books were written in medieval English and it seemed to cause her a huge headache every time she tried to read through those books.

She had found a couple of books written in Parseltongue, and she had read through them quite quickly. There were powerful healing spells in them, some of which she had never heard of, and the idea that she could do so much with her talent was intimidating. The library included a lot of research from Grandfather, and little by little, she read through them, trying to learn as much as possible. There were so many old spells in books she had never heard of, so many old rituals to strengthen one's magic. It felt addicting to be so close to such a library, to have so many different books at her hands.

In the beginning of April there was barely anything left to do for the castle and all she had left was to read through the library, finish her plans of saving Regulus's life and figure out the place her husband had hidden one of his Horcruxes before anyone else did. It seemed like she should do something else for the other ones, but she knew she couldn't risk changing the future. The Chamber of Secrets would always have to open, the ring would always have to curse Dumbledore and the old Headmaster would always die. There was no other choice. She could not save that old goat's life even if she wanted.

The closer it became to August, the more anxious she became. She couldn't sleep that well, her mind constantly in a rumble, and she could not just simply sit down and think about it. Her body was full of adrenaline and she knew that it would not change until Regulus was safe. She would have to wait for the correct day to do anything.

So, one day in late July Juliet apparated to the cliff near the cave, somewhere where she could look at the rocks and see, when someone would come in there. She had a small house-elf with her, and not that much later, a figure apparated on the rocks in front of the castle. Juliet looked at them silently and then turned her eyes at the house-elf, Tilly, she had with her.

"I want you to follow those two silently, without them noticing. Once the other house-elf has apparated out of the cave, I want you to take hold of the man and bring him here," she told the elf and Tilly nodded her head seriously.

"Tilly will bring man to Mistress," the elf promised, and then disappeared out of sight. Juliet was left to stand at the very coast of England, staring at the darkening sky. In a few moments she would see Regulus for the first time since she disappeared from the whole world. She hadn't written to any of her friends while in hiding, knowing full well that her husband might not like the idea of his followers responding her letters. She had barely had any contact with her brother, and they exchanged letters only every now and then. It was by no means regular, and she missed seeing her brother and talking with him.

Anxiously biting her lip all the while thinking about the situation in a cave beneath the ground under her very feet, Juliet kept her wand firmly in hand and hoped that nothing bad would happen either to Tilly or to Regulus. Tilly was very loyal to her, always eager to please, and Juliet had become quite fond of the elf, while on the other hand this might have been her only chance to save Regulus. She did have her time-turner with her, beneath the emerald green sweater she had put on that morning, just in case.

She kept on counting the seconds inside her head, trying to make sure that way that there would be no problems. She knew that it was risky to stand out in open just like that, but she had cast quite a few protective enchantments over herself in hope of not getting killed that day. When she hit 300 seconds, she started to nervously change her balance from leg to leg, waiting for the elf to appear with her friend. Who knew what kind of protections her husband had laid in there? It might take Regulus ten minutes to get even to the Horcrux.

That didn't ease her worrying at all.

After losing count of the seconds and just anxiously pacing around the cliff-side, there was a slight pop and Juliet turned around with her wand pointed at the two figures in front of her.

"Mistress must save the man! Bad body bit man!" Tilly squeaked and Juliet quickly fell down to her knees next to Regulus. Her friend was dripping wet, but that wasn't what worried her the most. There was a huge gash in his neck and her hands shook as she pointed her wand at the wound, muttering a silent spell and watched when the wound started to gather itself. She quickly took hold of Regulus's body, grabbed the elf by hand and apparated them all back into the Scottish castle.

Quickly summoning Dittany, Blood-Replenishing Potion and other salves to help with the scarring, she went back to her work. His lips were turning blue, and when she checked for pulse, she couldn't find anything anymore. Cursing silently she pushed the potions on the side, breathed into his lungs and then started to push her hands against his chest, trying to restart his heart.

She muttered healing spells all the while she worked, trying to get him to breathe again, and she could feel how they were draining her magic. The horrifying wound in his neck had almost been closed and there was only a small tear in the skin, but she didn't have any time to worry about it. She had a feeling that he had breathed in water and that if she didn't get his heart to restart anytime soon, she would lose him.

Suddenly, she remembered those healing spells written for Parselmouths and she looked around the room almost desperately, looking for a snake. Once her eyes met one, she didn't think about it but started to chant the healing spell.

After a long while of fighting, Regulus started to cough and Juliet immediately helped him to a sitting position, holding him tightly and slapping his back while he threw up water and some potion. Grabbing her wand, she pressed the tip at his throat and muttered silently, "_Anapneo_." His breathing became immediately easier and Juliet held on tightly to the younger boy while pressing the Blood-Replenishing Potion to his lips.

He drank it slowly, and she closed her eyes tiredly. "Don't ever do this to me again," she muttered silently, and his lips fell away from the bottle. Juliet lowered it onto the carpet.

"Juliet?" a confused voice asked from her. She propped him on the sofa in the common room, laying him carefully down. His voice was rough, much rougher than it had been. Juliet looked at the bloodied boy and gently stroked the hair off his face. Grey eyes looked at her for a moment, and she smiled gently at him.

"Go to sleep, Reg," she muttered and in no time, he had closed his eyes and fallen asleep.

Juliet sat silently on the rug in front of the fire, her sweater in blood.

* * *

The morning arrived before he woke from his dream. Juliet sat by him all that time, never moving, never saying anything. The house-elves took care of the fire, brought new potions and salves and bandages for her, but she couldn't find it in her to help Regulus anymore.

She was feeling cold and numb inside. Regulus was the third person she had ever seen die, and it was scary. It seemed that whenever she became attached to someone, they would die.

She hoped she could just fall asleep and never wake up again. After saving the first person, after finally seeing what war was going to cause in its horrible fashion, she was starting to feel like there was no point in fighting. Someone would always die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. There simply wasn't enough information about other peoples' deaths.

Regulus coughed behind her back and she turned around with a blank look upon her face, looking at the boy for a long moment when he coughed. Finally, it ceased, and he opened his eyes slowly, looking confusedly around himself.

"Juliet?" the boy asked from her and an automatic smile rose on her lips. She took hold of his hand, gently swept her fingers against his skin and tried to calm him down after it.

"Hey. Are you alright? That was quite a wound you had," she said gently, not mentioning how close she had come to lose him. The boy looked at her for a couple of moments, trying to clearly debate in his head if this was real or not. Juliet kept the smile upon her face, not letting it falter.

"What happened?" his rough voice asked from her and Juliet gently squeezed his hand, looking directly into his eyes before brushing off the hair that had been glued into his forehead by sweat.

"You went looking for his Horcrux. Apparently you managed to give the medallion of Slytherin to the elf and it disapparated from the cave while leaving you and a couple of Inferi in there," she said silently. Regulus's grey eyes stared at her, not quite understanding it.

"Am I dead?" he asked, and Juliet laughed with a strangled voice.

"No, you are most certainly not dead. You might be a bit weak for the next couple of weeks, however," she told him, and the young man frowned as he looked at her. Juliet bit her lip anxiously.

"There's something I need to tell you," she stated silently, and he looked into her eyes. "This is going to sound quite extreme and something one wouldn't really believe, but trust me, every word is true. Please, just listen to me. I'll answer your questions later." Her eyes looked into his, and after a short while he wet his lip.

"What is it?"

So Juliet started to explain him her past, his future. She told him about the fact that their family had delved deeper into the magic of time than any other person, how Henry had decided to raise her after the war had ended. She told him about the decision to come back into past, just so that she could have a record of finishing her schooling, and the idea had been that they would go back into the future after that year.

She told him about the fact that she was supposed to keep the future as she remembered it, not change anything at all, because it all could affect the decision of going back in time. She told him that he was supposed to die the previous evening, how she had worked for months on her plan just to save his life. She told him about the plan to save other people, and he listened to her with wide eyes, never saying anything in between her words.

When she was finished, he was silent for a long while before saying anything. "Who else are you going to save?" he asked from in a silent voice. Juliet bit her lip anxiously.

"The Prewett twins are going to die in August 1981. James Potter from Halloween 1981. Lily Evans must die, but I have a plan and the chances are that I either can bring her back to life or I can't. Sirius from June 1995. I think the list will turn out much longer, but those are the ones that I have decided on saving," she told him.

"We'll all own you a life debt," he stated after a while, and Juliet simply nodded her head. Regulus seemed to be deep in thought as he tried to understand every aspect of her plan.

"Are we going to live through all of those years between the wars?" he asked, and Juliet shook her head.

"I'm going to send you off to November 1993. I think I'll try to make it seem like I age in synch with the other world, but try to age only a year or two between the wars. Mostly I think I'll try to keep in contact with Severus," she spoke softly, and Regulus looked at her for a moment.

"Does he know about this? Does he know about anything?" he asked, and Juliet looked down at her hands.

"He doesn't. I'm going to start contacting him after a certain prophecy is introduced, I'll tell him to tell it to my husband and when my husband thinks it will mean Lily and her son, he'll become a spy," Juliet said silently. "It's going to be hard for him, but there is no other choice. I can't change the future. All I can do is to tell him that it's necessary. My husband needs to think he is spying on the Order."

Regulus frowned as he looked at her, and Juliet sighed tiredly.

"I already hate myself because of it. I hate it that I'm going to be the reason why his life is going to turn into living hell," she confessed, and Regulus squeezed her hand tiredly while smiling softly at her. Juliet didn't know how he could even stand being close to her. She didn't know how come he didn't completely hate her, but he was still with her, and he wasn't saying harsh words to her. She was extremely grateful for it.

"We'll get through this, together," he promised and smiled at her.

Juliet smiled back, but deep inside, she felt like crying.

* * *

Regulus started to recover and by the beginning of September, he could walk, talk and act like a normal human being. The only thing that created a huge contrast between the previous him and the man today was the change of voice. Before, his voice had been like molten silk, but nowadays it was rough and sounded angry. He had become her greatest asset in that war, helping out clearing her plans and helping with her research of the future.

The meeting of Regulus and Salazar Slytherin had been one that had been making her anxious for a couple of days. When the portrait finally showed up, he deemed the Black boy 'a cunning creature with a certain disregard for rules', and stated that he would be a valuable friend to anyone.

Regulus had taken quite well the news that she was more closely related to Salazar Slytherin than her husband. He had taken quite well the news that she spoke Parseltongue. He hadn't taken that well the news that they would be not working on destroying her husband from behind his back.

Juliet, however, caught some looks he had when she read books about dark arts, or when she read books written in Parseltongue, or when she had a conversation with 'Grandpa Sal' that ended up with them arguing over some stupid point about a spell she was in his opinion too young and innocent to know.

Juliet told the painting that it was war and that she'd need all the knowledge she could have if the actual Slytherin Heir ever captured her.

They hadn't seen her grandfather for a week after that particular conversation. After he finally returned to the castle, they all acted like nothing had happened between them.

Regulus and Juliet started to work on projects completely of their own after a couple of months living together. It was really the only way they stayed sane: he couldn't leave the castle grounds and the protective wards, and even if she could, she would never feel safe outside. She'd always spell her hair blonde, change her eye colour into green, straighten her hair and wear clothes she didn't normally use. She always looked completely different while looking for the things they needed, and after a while she started to feel like when she changed into her disguise, she stopped being Juliet Riddle and became someone completely different.

It was a refreshing feeling. It was easier to be someone else, since then there was nothing that kept haunting her dreams and every waking hour. She was once again pure, no longer covered by the blood that had been spilled on her during the years. She was no longer the girl who had seen her parents die.

After the year changing into 1980 Juliet and Regulus started to plan on writing the first letter to Severus. It had been over a year since they had last talked, and it was only about two months until Sybil Trelawney would prophecy the birth of the Boy Who Lived. They both knew that at the time Severus was already close to the Dark Lord, but not as close as would be considered a close follower. At the moment, he was simply a minion, a number in the Dark Lord's army.

"We need to be clever about the wording of that letter," Juliet stated silently. "If anyone else reads it, they must not know what it all means. There have to be things that only we know about."

Regulus looked thoughtful at this one. After a while of thinking about it, he opened his mouth.

"We should acknowledge him as 'the Half-Blood Prince', since that was the nickname he used during third until sixth year. But what should we name you?" he asked, and Juliet grinned.

"My Animagus form. I could sign it as Feathers and he'd understand who sent the letter to him," Juliet stated, and Regulus blinked twice before a smile rose on his lips.

"Try making a first draft. I'll read through it, and we'll check if there are too many things others could understand," Regulus suggested. She nodded her head, took some parchment in front of her and dibbed her nib pen into black ink before starting to write the first draft.

_Dear Half-Blood Prince,  
It has been a while since we last saw. I apologise for the inconvenience. I hope that everything is working out well in your kingdom.  
I have been meaning to write you much earlier, but only now have I had the chance. There have been many things changing and the wolves fled a long time ago. I have found a new forest for myself to live in. I have yet to see any serpents in here, and it seems like they will not be joining this little tea party in the bushes. I think I will stay in this forest for a while now.  
There has been a rumour concerning a king amongst the lions. Is it true he is now sleeping amongst the stars? If it is, I am truly sorry for it. He was a great king.  
There is much more which I'd like to tell, but it seems like the fire might catch the letter if I write any more into it. However, time seems to be on my side. I will see you later.  
Feathers_

Juliet gave the letter to Regulus, who frowned as he read through it. He raised his eyebrows at the part asking Severus about his faith, but never said anything. Juliet waited for his comment patiently, playing with the nib pen. After a moment he raised his eyes from the parchment in front of him.

"This is very good," he stated and gently laid the parchment on the table between them. "I think we could send this one to Severus. There are enough hints about what is going on with your life, but not so much that if your husband gets to read it, he'll immediately know what you are planning on. I think it's going to piss him off, however."

Juliet chuckled silently and looked at the ceiling for a while.

"He's going to hate me so much after this war," she just muttered silently, and Regulus frowned as he listened to her words.

"Doesn't it bother you?" he asked, and Juliet gently shook her head.

"Not really. He could never hate me more than I already hate myself," she just shrugged calmly before turning back to the parchment in front of them. She pulled out a hair, transfigured it into a black silk ribbon and then tied the parchment with it. Taking her wand out, muttering the right incantation and giving the letter to the silvery wolf she send the letter to Severus, hoping that he would not completely hate her.

She needed him, and she was scared that if he started to hate her, there was no longer anyone out there who didn't.

* * *

His responding letter came that very night, sometime during the hour of the wolf. Juliet hadn't been sleeping at all, afraid of her nightmares would wake her up and she'd end up lying awake in the darkness, so the letter arriving there was a relief. The Patronus dropped his letter on her lap, and she quickly ripped it open.

_Dear Feathers,  
Everything seems to work out in my kingdom. I am glad that you have found a new forest for yourself.  
It is true what they say about the king. He is now sleeping amongst the stars, but it seems like the empire will never fall. The king's men still are strong.  
How is your little tea party coming along? I suppose not many have been invited into it, seeing as the wolves no longer are in here. I must admit it would be interesting to see how everything is organised, but it seems like I have responsibilities for my people. I wish you good luck with these plans.  
Tell me, how soon is 'later'? I didn't quite catch the meaning from your letter.  
The Prince_

Juliet smiled while reading the letter. It felt like a huge relief that Severus still was her friend, that he still trusted her. His comment about her little 'tea party' had been quite genius and Juliet smiled at it. No pureblood would entirely understand all the meanings in their letters, and it started to seem like they could make their completely own code language just for letters that had really not so much meaning.

After a while of thinking about her response, Juliet took out parchment, a nib pen, some ink and started to write another letter for him.

She didn't notice Regulus watching her from the door to his room during all that time.


	25. Chapter 24: Please Keep At A Distance

**A/N:** Wow. July has been intense. School starts again in two weeks and then I'll be having other things to do on top of writing, which will probably mean that I'll have more irregular updates for this story. Yay.

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

Out of all years Juliet had lived, 1980 seemed to be the worst one in her life. The war was going on, people were dying left and right and she didn't know how to save them. Some deaths were fixed points in time. Some she had no idea of how to prevent. All she could do was to keep on thinking about those people she could actually save, but it wasn't enough.

The day Juliet received a letter from Severus concerning the prophecy was the one it was hard for her to write back to him and to tell him to tell the prophecy to Tom. That day seemed to be the day she sealed the Potters' child's life. It seemed like every bad thing that boy would go through in the future was caused by her.

She blamed herself more than she let anyone see.

That Halloween she got drunk, stared at the fireplace with empty eyes and didn't speak to Regulus at all. He understood well enough what she must have been feeling, and never said anything.

Severus's letters became more irregular and spoke less and less about things. Nowadays it seemed like he was just making sure she was still alive while fighting two different sides of his own life.

Christmas passed. Easter passed.

Juliet woke up from her emotional coma to save the Prewett twins that summer. With the information they gave her she was able to save Marlene McKinnon and her younger sister Magdalena. Three weeks after the McKinnon's slaughter she managed to track down Benjy Fenwick, kidnap him and stage a Death Eater attack leaving small transfigured bits around the scene.

Caradoc Dearborn was the last one she could track down and save. What she knew of his death was simply that he had disappeared, and he was one of the easiest ones to save. All she had to do was to sneak on him in a battle, grab him and apparate him into the castle.

Oh, he had put on a great fight. She had almost felt excited about it, but it barely took her half a minute to take his wand and to the others to arrive at the scene and explain him the situation.

Juliet hadn't told the others that much about the situation as she had told to Regulus. In example, none of the others knew about her marriage or why exactly she had saved their lives. All they knew was that she knew the future, couldn't change it until a certain point and that they could not leave the castle. Some complained about it, but Juliet just shut them out. After strengthening the castle wards she had only made it possible for herself to apparate people in and out of the place. House-elves could always move around the world, but Juliet was the one that decided who came in and who came out.

There were different sides of living suddenly with so many people. One was that there was always someone who would be willing to talk, there were suddenly a much bigger amount of information available and that the castle didn't feel as empty as with only Regulus and herself in there. The bad sides were that most of the new people were narrow-minded Gryffindors, the chemistries between people always didn't match and that some people did not appreciate the fact that she was a Parselmouth.

Juliet kept on making small visits to the muggle world and bought newspapers, radios and new books to keep everybody entertained. She always felt very anxious about it all, but it was better to have those small buffers for people than to just let everyone get angry at everyone.

One October morning she was sitting at the common room with a bottle of firewhiskey in front of her while staring blankly at the fire. She didn't move at all when Fabian and Gideon sat down on the other small sofa in front of the fire and stared at her.

"What's going on?" Fabian asked from her, and she blinked but didn't turn her eyes at them.

"I'm trying to work on a small problem," she answered.

"What kind of problem?" Gideon inquired. Juliet sighed tiredly and rubbed her forehead.

"How I'm supposed to hide nine persons in a Scottish castle for four or five years while trying to avoid getting killed myself." The Prewett twins stared at her and she poured another glass of firewhiskey for herself while giving the twins glasses. They took them, held them in their hands all the while looking at her.

"There are only seven of us," Fabian stated silently. Juliet turned towards them with a sad smile on her lips.

"For now."

* * *

The morning of October 31st Juliet hugged Regulus tightly before anyone else even was awake, asked him to tell them that she was coming back later that evening and then apparated outside the Potters' house in Godric's Hollow. The house may have been under the Fidelius charm, but she could still see them inside. Quickly before anyone saw her she turned into her Animagus form, flew up on a tree by their yard and then waited.

Just after dark rose she flew down into their back garden, changed into her human form, cast a Disillusionment Charm over herself and waited a while. James stepped out of the house briefly to drop out some trash, and the time his back was turned, she stepped inside the house and found the best possible place to wait for the moment she dreaded.

Sometime into the night, she could feel his presence just outside. When Lily ran upstairs, Juliet quickly pulled James into her corner, stunned and disillusioned him, transfigured a vase into the man and threw a portkey at the man, sending him just outside the castle wards. She hid in her corner while keeping the transfigured body acting like human when _he_ stepped into the house.

The body fell in the stairs the moment it was hit with the green curse.

Juliet bit her lip as she heard the man walking upstairs, and when he spoke at Lily, she disapparated from the cottage with tears streaming down her face to where she had send James.

Dumping his limp body into Regulus's arms and then apparating back to the cottage before anyone could say anything was harder for her than anything else. She stood outside and watched as the green glow shone from a window once, and then the same window exploded.

Juliet didn't think anything when she ran upstairs and saw her body on the floor. She quickly transfigured one of Harry's toys into another body, then took hold of Lily and apparated into the castle.

"Lay her down in my room. I'll be back soon," she told the shocked McKinnon sisters before returning once more into the cottage.

Harry was crying. Juliet walked past the body and cradled him into her arms. "Hello Harry. My name is Juliet," she told at the small boy crying against her chest. She grabbed a warm blanket from the cot, wrapped it around the small boy and then took an owl plush toy with her, carrying the small boy outside of the house.

"Mama and dada were curse by an evil wizard so that they are sleeping and cannot be woken until their true love kisses them. The thing is, Harry, mama and dada are each others' true loves and now they can't wake up," she told the small boy while avoiding looking at the transfigured body in the staircase. Juliet turned to the door and gently patted the small boy's back while carrying him outside.

"I think Padfoot will come here soon. I'm sure he'll take care of the evil wizard," she whispered to the small boy, and he stopped crying.

"Paddy come?" Harry asked with a hopeful voice, and Juliet wiped tears out of her face while taking the small boy outside. She sat on the pavement in front of the house, let Harry sit in her lap and then smiled at the small boy.

"I'll ask him here," Juliet promised and fished her wand out of her pocket. She quickly summoned her Patronus, told the message and watched as the wolf disappeared from the scene.

She kept on talking to Harry, telling stories and after a while the small boy fell asleep. Juliet raised her eyes tiredly and looked at the sky upon, thinking about it all.

Footsteps carried someone closer to her and she turned her head to the left, seeing someone she hadn't thought to see that night. Severus stood there; watching her with the small boy in her arms, and didn't move at all.

"Are they dead?" he asked from her. Juliet could feel tears stinging in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she said silently. He looked at the ground for a long moment.

"She's in the nursery, if you want to say your goodbyes," she said after a while, and he stiffly nodded his head. The man in black turned, walked into the house and disappeared upstairs. Juliet kept on sitting on the cold pavement until he returned from the house and sat down next to her.

"I suppose he's gone," Severus stated silently, his voice hoarse. Juliet shook her head and sighed tiredly.

"Not entirely. He'll come back again," she said, and for the first time during that night, Severus finally met her eyes.

"How can you know?" he asked, his eyes red and puffy, and Juliet bit her lip.

"Go to Spinner's End. I'll be there after... I'll be there," she said with a silent voice. Severus stared at her for the longest time before finally just turning his back on her and walking away from the scene. Juliet kept staring at his back.

A few minutes after he left Sirius arrived at the scene. His bike fell on the ground when he rushed to take Harry into his arms. He didn't even seem to recognise Juliet, and she silently looked at the weeping man before turning her back at him, walking away from the scene and having tears rolling down her cheeks the whole time.

The common room of the old Slytherin castle was silent when she returned there the last time that night. James Potter was still stunned, and Regulus silently rose from his chair. He joined her as she walked into her room, and he closed the doors after she simply looked at him.

Lily's skin was purple and waxy. She didn't look like she was sleeping, not at all. It was clear to Juliet that Lily was as dead as a rock, and that they would need a lot of luck in their attempt.

Juliet pulled a silvery time-turner out of her pocket and threw it into air. It started to float above Lily, above her chest and Juliet took in a deep breath. She started to feel out the magic in the room, first slowly, getting used to the sensations her mind created. "Use a shield," she told Regulus, and after a moment she could feel his magic emerging into a shield in front of him.

Juliet turned her attention towards the time-turner and Lily's body. She could still find traces of the redhead's magic lingering on her skin, and she knew that there still was a chance that this would work. She took on a calming breath and raised her bare hands into the air, letting her magic connect into Lily's magic.

She started to pour it in, just like she had poured her magic into the ring in her finger almost two years prior. This time, it wasn't about giving more time for herself. This time, it was about saving someone else; it was about giving her life-force, magic and blood for someone else.

She felt the exact moment the time-turner started to spin above Lily's body. She focused her attention to both of them, bit her lip and pushed her magic into the spinning time-turner.

* * *

Juliet woke up startled. Regulus's face was above hers and he slowly started to smile as she blearily opened her eyes to look at him. "You did it. You actually did it," he told her, and she blinked a couple of times while looking at him.

"Did what?" she just asked confusedly. Regulus frowned and moved away from her, helped her into a sitting position. Juliet looked confusedly at Lily and James. They both looked at her, both extremely pale and anxious. Juliet tried to dig through her memory of what was going on, but couldn't remember why exactly they were in there.

"Why am I here? Wasn't I supposed to spend time at Godric's Hollow?" Juliet turned to Regulus, who frowned for a moment before his eyes were cleared out of all doubt.

"You didn't have a shield," he murmured silently. Juliet listened to it and thought about what he meant, and after a moment she realised _exactly _what he meant with his words.

"Oh," she just murmured and looked at Lily, who was anxiously biting her lip.

"Well, congratulations. You are apparently the first person who has been saved after dying from a Killing Curse," she smiled. Lily stared at her with her mouth open.

"But what about Harry? What's going to happen to my baby?" she asked from her. Juliet closed her eyes for a moment while thinking about it, trying to remember anything at all.

The troll. Voldemort in the back of Quirrell's head. Slaying the basilisk. The Tri-Wizard Tournament. Resurrecting Voldemort. Fighting with Voldemort. Umbridge. Dumbledore's death.

"He'll turn out just fine," she smiled at Lily. She looked doubtful, but at that moment, Juliet just couldn't find the energy to care about it.

Regulus stopped her from standing and Juliet pouted at the man. "You're not leaving the castle that weak," he stated.

"I promised to meet Severus," she murmured, and Regulus simply shook his head.

"Send a Patronus and tell shit happened and you need to hide a couple of days more," he just stated calmly. Juliet pouted, but he just raised an eyebrow. Juliet knew it was impossible to do anything at the moment, with so many people ready to put her to the ground in the blink of an eye, so she simply just took out her wand, focused her last bits of energy into forming a Patronus and then looked at the silvery wolf.

"The forest is burning. I'll meet you after the smoke has cleared. Beware of the strange creatures knocking at your door," she murmured at the wolf and sent it away.

She fell asleep before even realising it.

Two days later, after telling Regulus she was fine for the thousandth time, they finally let her get up from her bed. They had been pampering her like a child, and Juliet was getting extremely sick of it all. Apparently she had pushed most of her magic into saving Lily, and sending Severus a Patronus had been the last stitch. Magical exhaustion was not something she was a stranger to, but this time it seemed like she was not going to just walk out of it without any consequences.

November fourth was the day they were going to arrest Severus. Even though Juliet tried to sneak out of the castle, they always caught her in time to stop her from going to see Severus. The last attempt ended up with the Prewett twins catching her and taking her wand away from her, and in the end she just had to accept the fact that they were not going let her get away until she could surely take care of herself.

"I'm going to sit at his trial and you can't stop me," Juliet stated with a harsh voice at the nine other people in the great hall. They quickly glanced at each other and seemed to think about this. Regulus was the only one with a neutral expression upon his face.

"When is it?" he simply asked.

"November 16th. I'm just fine," she stated, and Regulus looked at her for the longest time. Juliet only accepted it because he was the one that held her father's wand, the same wand she had been using for the past 17 years. She didn't like the fact, but there was nothing she could really do about it. They had found her spare wands and taken them too, so she was without a wand in the middle of nine witches and wizards that were talented in different parts of magic.

"If, and I really mean it, you are sure that you are fine and that you will be safe, you can go," he stated.

"You can't be serious! She nearly died while saving Lily!" Magdalena shrieked out. Juliet rolled her eyes.

"I've died twice already. It's not that big deal if I only _nearly_ die," she stated, and the whole table seemed to turn their eyes at her. Juliet looked at them with one raised eyebrow, and challenged their stares easily.

"You do realise that usually when someone dies they don't come back as a living human being?" Regulus ensured her. Juliet simply smirked at the notion.

"I didn't say I was dead for a long time. I only said I have died. Having your heart stopped for a minute or two isn't that big of a deal in a world where you can travel to the other side of the world in a blink of an eye," Juliet stated. Regulus nodded thoughtfully at that notion. Lily looked curiously at her words and frowned after a moment.

"I've read a lot about healing and I've never heard about something like this," she stated. Juliet looked at her hands.

"I suppose the fact that my parents voluntarily performed a certain ritual allows me a bit more attachments to this world than a normal person," she pondered out loud. The others stared at her, with various looks upon their faces: most of the Gryffindors seemed shocked and a bit appalled, some looked outright curious. Regulus looked simply dark.

He knew she had seen them die. He knew that the ritual probably had something to do with their deaths. Juliet knew he would never let the others know about it unless she was willing to let them know. She knew he would keep it to himself, because he knew her better than the others and understood why she actually spoke in riddles all the time.

Riddles were what she had grown up with. Riddles were what she was good at creating. Riddles were what she tried to solve.

* * *

Severus's trial started at 11 in the morning. Juliet had arrived at the scene earlier that morning, watching through a couple of other trials before his and hoping silently that nothing had changed in that timeline. She kept sitting at the back of the crowd; somewhere she hoped that he would not see her. Not many were attending the trials other than some reporters, family members and friends. The crowd seemed to change for almost every trial.

Juliet was starting to hate Bartemius Crouch Sr. He seemed biased, something a judge should never be, and she hoped to dear god that someone would make him pay for all the things the man caused for other people. Some of the people Juliet _knew _whom were not Death Eaters were sentenced to Azkaban, and some she _knew_ to be ones walked out of the court room without any punishment. It was clear that the more money you had, the easier it was to get away from something like that.

His trial seemed unfair until Albus too many middle names Dumbledore walked into the court room and proved that Severus had been a spy during the war. Juliet kept on biting her lip as the Wizengamot spoke to each other and in the end she felt relief flooding in as Severus was claimed innocent.

The man walked out of court room, and Juliet quickly followed him out. "Hey," she said silently in the hallway, and he turned around and looked at her. He looked tired, had dark rings around his eyes and didn't move at all while looking at her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there earlier," she said silently. She walked to his side and they walked through the corridor at the exact same pace. Severus looked tired, more tired than she had ever seen him, and she felt so guilty about it.

"I thought you were dead," he stated silently as they moved on forwards along the corridor. Juliet glanced at him silently, biting her lip nervously.

"Something happened. I couldn't leave my hideout before they arrested you, and I was in no condition to break you out of Azkaban at that time," she stated silently. A small, but incredibly bitter smile rose on his lips.

"Would you really break me out of Azkaban?" he asked silently from her, and Juliet took his hand into hers, just like back in school before her life turned into living hell. He glanced at her eyes, and she tried her best to put on a smile and not cry.

"Of course I would. You're my best friend."

That night, when they sat together in his living room, she told him as much as she could. She told him that she was working on something, told him she couldn't tell him exactly what it was, and he seemed to accept the fact. He asked some questions from her, and she answered them as truthfully as she could. She knew she couldn't tell him about the people she had saved during the almost three years she had been in hiding, and she guessed that maybe once the war was entirely over, she could finally do something about it.

They spoke together, trying to catch up with each other. Severus told him about what her husband had worked on during the last year or two, and she memorised every single little fact. She told him how she had managed to break the marriage contract, all the while looking at the wedding band still stuck on her left ring finger. He looked at it, and for a short moment Juliet could see disappointment, anger and sadness upon his face before it disappeared.

It was the worst kind of sadness she had ever encountered. Even though he smiled, acted like nothing was wrong, there were so many things that still hurt him. She felt her heart aching, and she knew that there was nothing she could do about it until her husband was dead.

_I promise it will be fine, Severus. It will be fine. Everything will be fine._


	26. Chapter 25: Like Those Who Only Mourn

**A/N: **School starts tomorrow. These past two weeks I have been extremely sick, spent time with my goddaughter, bought and sold school books, tried to arrange my schedule and what other things. I can already promise that this autumn updates are going to be a bit more irregular, something like once in a fortnight, but nothing ridiculous. (Unless NaNoWriMo eats my soul again. It has happened earlier, and yet I am still going to participate in it this November.)

_anesthesiadoll_

* * *

In the beginning of December, Juliet finally said goodbye to the nine wizards and witches she had been living with, and then send them into the future. It was hard to just leave them there: for them, she would be away for only a matter of minutes, but for her it would be two full years.

After returning to the damp, cold evening in early December 1981, Juliet sat silently down in front of the fire and watched it burn out. Everything in the castle had been preserved to stay as they were until twelve years later, and there really was no reason for her to stay in there anymore. Still she sat there, in the glow of the fading fire, and kept thinking about all of it.

First of all, she'd need to go to Sweden and have a talk with her brother. She had no idea of what they were going to do, but she knew that Henry and Grace would have to move away from the house before she and Henry would arrive there in August 1982.

How confusing time-travel was.

After that, she would need to figure out where exactly she should live. She didn't know if living at the Adder House was the best option, seeing as if Severus came to visit and she wasn't there, it would raise some questions. It would be better if she changed her hideout once for every year she scrambled through. That would mean living out of her backpack again, but it really didn't bother her as much as it earlier had.

It was much simpler, when her life had been stuffed down inside a small, green backpack. Everything seemed much easier when she just could grab everything she owned and walk away.

The fire burned out. Juliet rose from the carpet in front of the fireplace, glanced around in the common room and faced the portrait looking at her in the wall.

"Be careful, child," her ancestor's portrait said.

"I will," she answered.

Then she was no longer in there.

* * *

The snow greeted her and Juliet silently smiled as she stood in front of the small villa in northern Sweden. It was clear that someone lived in the house, and it was also extremely clear for her that they had been waiting for her already for awhile. There was a light on in the dining area, she could see it from the study's windows, and there was certain calmness in the house that she had missed. The coldness outside felt like a calming hug, the cool breeze like a soft kiss against her bare skin, and the snow danced in the air lightly, without rush. She walked through the piles of snow, stepping into the footsteps already forming a path, and then she stood behind the door to the house her younger version would grow up. Softly knocking on the door, she waited outside with snow in her black hair, with the green backpack hung over her shoulder, with a small but a very fragile smile upon her lips.

A woman opened the door, and she laughed from joy as she wrapped her arms around Juliet. "Henry! She's here!" she yelled over her shoulder, and after a small moment a man wrapped his arms around the two women. Juliet felt tears stinging in her eyes as Grace and Henry both held on to her, like they never wanted to let her go. She looked at them both, and saw the joy upon their faces, and she almost felt like at peace.

She was back at _home_, the place she belonged to, the place she had grown up in. She was back with the remaining people of her own family, and she loved them more than she could possibly ever tell them.

They pulled her inside, and only then Juliet truly had time to look at her sister-in-law and her brother. Grace practically glowed with the ring on her finger, and Henry looked much happier than he had been in a long time. "I'm so glad you're alright," Henry smiled at his little sister, and Juliet answered the smile happily. They sat down by the dining table, and an exited Pepper brought her a cup of tea.

"How did everything work out?" Grace asked from her, her green eyes filled with kindness. Juliet started to explain them everything that had happened since that fateful winter solstice, and they listened her, only stopped her when they didn't quite understand something. She told them about how she had saved all those people, and they smiled brightly at the notion. Henry looked extremely proud, and Grace had tears of gratefulness in her beautiful eyes.

Almost after an hour, they sat at the table and looked at each other. Juliet felt like she could finally breathe, and at the same time she felt like something was missing.

Tom wasn't there. As much as she sometimes, very silently, very secretly wished that he would be there, he wasn't. As much as she missed the less than perfect hair in the mornings, as much as she missed the conversations they had over tea in the darkened library, she knew none of it would ever come back again. She knew the next time she would see him it would be already too late to go back to those habits, those kinds of conversations, and she would be too different.

After all, he had broken her trust. After all, he wanted something else than her.

And that really was fine, because love wasn't something everyone could afford. He didn't want her. He simply wanted the world, and that was fine for her, because she had always known it. He wanted the world to be his, and he wanted the world to suffer like he had suffered. He wanted it to be his own, and when one plans for taking over the world, they don't have the time to care about other people.

But sometimes, when she was all by herself in some corner of the world, she felt a distinct pain in her chest while thinking about it. Not always, but sometimes, it almost felt as painful as the loss of her parents had felt so many years ago.

"So they are now safe in 1993?" Henry asked from her, and Juliet nodded her head.

"I left them in there and told that I'd see them in a couple of hours," she said silently. There was a sad look upon Grace's face as the woman gently took her sister-in-law's hand in her own and brushed her skin with the tips of her fingers.

"Are you sure you can do this all? I know it will be hard," the woman gently smiled at her. Juliet smiled back at her, but not as strongly as she would have liked. There were too many cracks in her masks and Grace could easily tell that she was silently hurting inside.

"I know I can do this. I have to do this," Juliet stated while looking at the table. She could feel her brother looking at her for the longest of times, and then he finally sighed, almost as if he was tired, almost as if he knew what was going to happen but had no way to stop it from happening.

"I think we should go live in 1993 also," Henry stated after a moment. Grace glanced at him, and Juliet noticed how they held hands beneath the table. It reminded her of how Severus used to hold her hand, and she could feel her heart aching for someone to take it away.

"That gives us only one and half years of peace until he is reborn," Grace said silently. Henry looked deep into his wife's eyes, and Juliet silently slid her hand into her own lap.

"The war isn't over yet, Grace. This is just a temporary pause. We have to live through it and not forget how to fight during these years," Henry told her. The woman bit her lips, and Juliet could see how she hesitated. Grace glanced at Juliet, who smiled at the woman.

"If I can make a difference and save someone's life, then my purpose on this planet has been fulfilled. You are not meant to fight. You are meant to remind people that there still is hope and love," Juliet smiled. Grace bit her lip as she looked at her sister-in-law, but Juliet simply smiled.

"I'm going to miss you both. Be safe. I'll see you at Christmas," Juliet told them both, and she hugged them tightly. Grace wept silent tears against her neck, and Henry squeezed her tight, knowing that she would be all by herself for the next two years.

The truth, however, was that she wasn't completely alone.

She still had Severus left.

* * *

Deciding on what days she should live during the next twelve years wasn't exactly easy. She had enough history books about that period of time to know when there were going to be extreme things happening, and she knew that she could only live a sixth of each year. It was hard to decide how often she should be available for Severus, how often she should answer his letters and how often she should meet him. It was hard to just pick out some days, knowing that some other days she could not be there for him even if he needed her.

Counting the days for each year was stressful. She had already decided that she'd try to spent at least a couple of days during the Christmas time with Severus, and a couple during the Easter, but the rest were just scattered all around the year, mostly on weekdays. Having Hogsmeade weekends meant that it was possible for her to meet her best friend there without any suspicion rising, and at the same time keep an eye on the happenings of Hogwarts. She knew she had to make sure that she lived exactly 730 days, but seeing how little it actually was broke her heart.

Finally, she had come up with a plan that seemed to work out for the most part, and she tiredly looked at the small time-turner in front of her, lying on the dining room table back at the Adder House. Her next goal was to explain Severus the situation as best as she could, tell him that he couldn't probably reach her during the weeks and try to just make sure that he didn't understand everything of her plan. It was already risky that she had decided to keep in contact with people, and it made it even more risky that she had to do it discreetly.

She'd need to be the most Slytherin person ever walking upon this earth.

Silently grabbing some parchment, ink and a nib pen, she turned her mind away from the stressful thoughts and started to write a letter for her closest friend, asking him to meet her at the Adder House December 20th.

* * *

A knock on the door woke Juliet from her thoughts and she jumped up from the chair, quickly walked to the front door of her ancestral house and opened it with a small smile upon her lips. Severus was standing there, wrapped in black, and she let him come in out of the cool December breeze. He was standing in the entrance hall of their house, and he curiously looked around himself.

The house was clearly a shock for him. It wasn't something like the Malfoys had, which screamed on everyone's face that they had a massive amount of money, and it wasn't something you would expect to see in a pureblood house. One of the walls had a huge amount of photographs on it, with many smiling witches and wizards in the moving pictures, the staircase wasn't marble or stone, there weren't any expensive clutter in the room and it was so light in there. The house was huge, but it was very comfortable and felt like a real home to everyone who stepped inside.

"I thought your house would be a big castle seeing your profession," Severus confessed after a moment while glancing at her. Snowy popped into the entrance hall, took Severus's cloak and then disappeared down the hall. Juliet smiled at her friend.

"This is in a way castle. My ancestors just had a bit more down-to-earth ideas about what kind of a house a craftsman should have," Juliet simply shrugged. Severus glanced at her.

Juliet led the man past the small library and into the eastern parlour. The large windows showed into the beautiful garden covered in snow and the high walls of the orchard. Outside it looked so peaceful, so calm, and so different from what Juliet had been used to seeing when she looked out of the window. The smell of the ocean was no longer familiar to her; the orchard wasn't the one she really remembered. She kept thinking about the garden of Riddle Manor, and she couldn't help but think how that garden had so many more places to hide from the world.

After the elves had brought tea to them and both had a warm cup in their hands, Severus opened his mouth again. "What is it you wanted to talk with me? Your letter was very vague," he stated calmly and sipped his tea. Juliet nervously bit her lip while looking at the man in front of her, the man she was still so very much in love. He still had the knowing look in his eyes, the same posture that spoke about inner strength that he didn't highlight to everyone else, and she knew that even though she had changed so much, he was still the very same person. He still enjoyed brewing potions, read about the newest theories in magic and created his own spells. He still was the unappreciated genius she had had the fortune to meet, but deep inside, there was something broken. He was sarcastic, an outright bastard and had a venomous tongue, but Juliet could see so much more in him.

There were so many little facts and things that drove him to be like that, and she was one of them.

"I need to talk with you about the future," Juliet sighed tiredly and looked at Severus. He raised his dark eyebrows and waited for her to continue. Juliet sighed tiredly and rubbed her forehead, feeling how her thoughts were in disarray.

"I'm not going to be around that much," she stated silently, and his eyes pierced her.

"Why?" he asked, and Juliet nervously bit her lip.

_Because the war isn't over yet. Because there are so many little things I could end up changing if I decided to stay. Because I'm not sure if I can ever look into your eyes and not feel guilty. Because I don't know if I'll live through this war and I don't want to give you false hope. Because I love you and I can't stand hurting you._

"Because it's easier this way," she stated silently. She looked downwards, at her hands resting in her lap, and he was silent for a moment.

"You still have the ring on," he murmured after a moment, and Juliet just barely noticed the glimmer of the diamond. She wanted to say something, to do something, but she found out that there was so much she could never tell him.

"He never did die," she shrugged indifferently. She could pinpoint the exact moment he froze, his eyes locked into the ring on her left ring finger. Juliet could feel how he thought about it, how he tried to understand, and she just kept silent all the while he thought about it.

The truth was she was scared to death to say anything. She knew Tom would kill Severus if she told him his deepest secrets, and she couldn't lose him. That would have been one death too many, and she had seen enough death during her life.

"How? How could he survive something like that?" Severus asked from her in a strangled voice. It told Juliet how scared exactly the man was, and she couldn't blame him. She was scared to death herself. She was scared by how many Horcruxes tom had made, how there was barely anything left of the soul of her husband's. She was scared how destroying the Horcruxes would affect him, and she was scared that he would be outright insane by the time Harry Potter's blood granted the man a second chance in life.

"There is this horrible ritual that he did a long time ago. I don't dare tell you what exactly he did, but that is why he didn't die," Juliet muttered silently. She could feel how Severus's eyes burned on her skin, and they both were silent for a long while.

"You're scared he'll kill me if he ever finds out," Severus said silently, and Juliet nodded her head with a lump stuck in her throat. She didn't dare say anything else, and she hoped he wouldn't try to find out anything more. She had already told him too much, she had already let him know what he shouldn't have found out quite yet, and she prayed it wouldn't change the future.

His hand slowly slid into hers, and she raised her eyes, looking for the dark eyes of the man in front of her. She missed their kisses and the soft touches and the silent moments in the Slytherin common room and how Tom smiled and the way he always murmured sarcastic comments at everything he said and her parents lying limply on the floor of the great room and she couldn't breathe –

"You're having a panic attack," Severus frowned when her hand started to shake. Juliet closed her eyes and pulled her legs against her body, swaying it slowly in a rhythm while trying to calm her mind. She could feel him looking at her all that time, just a block of peace in her chaotic world, a fixed point in everything that was too strong for her to fight, a force that was always there for her to return to. He didn't touch her, understanding that his touch had triggered the panic attack.

He just waited there, not saying anything, letting her calm down by herself. After a while she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her with a hollow look in her eyes. He seemed to flinch when seeing it.

"Where are Henry and Grace?" Severus asked from her after a long moment, and Juliet carefully looked at him, not letting the deep and dark thoughts shine through her eyes. He already had enough on his plate without worrying about her also, and she knew it was much better if she just could let it be.

"They're in Sweden. I doubt they'll move back to England anytime soon," Juliet stated silently while looking into his dark eyes. It was much easier to talk about something else and act like a couple of moments ago she wasn't feeling like she was suffocating. It was much easier to just push the panic and pain out of her mind and act like nothing was wrong when clearly there was something twisted in her soul.

"Do you think they'll ever come back?" Severus asked from her, and Juliet stared at his hands. They had a few more scars nowadays from the potions and some were caused by cuts into the skin, but they still were the same hands that had held her hands, the same hands that had such a gentle touch. Juliet felt detached from her own body as she thought about the fact that if everything had went differently, they could now be together.

"I'm sure they'll return one day. Henry is too English to live anywhere else for the rest of his life. Sooner or later he'll forget how things are in here and they'll return," Juliet stated with a silent voice, and Severus carefully listened to her. He nodded his head silently. Juliet kept thinking about how much she would miss everyone else, and she knew that she just had to live with the choices she had made.

They continued on with their conversations, and all that time she just felt like she had done the wrong choice while deciding to stay close to him.

* * *

New Year's Day came and went. Suddenly Severus was back to teaching, the year changed and the world had forgotten about what had been happening just three months earlier. None seemed to remember anymore about the war, and even if they did, none ever spoke about it. They celebrated the end of it, and then returned back to their lives.

None ever thought about the small boy who had lost his parents. None ever thought about Frank and Alice Longbottom other than her and Severus, who talked about their options with changing the Cure to work with such level of nerve damage. Juliet knew she couldn't do anything for those two until the war had been restarted again, but she hoped silently that they would find something. Neville Longbottom didn't deserve to lose his parents like that.

Sitting in a swing on a wintery playground Juliet watched from the other side of the park as Petunia Dursley pushed her son in the baby buggy. Another small boy walked by them and they arrived in the park. The smaller boy looked curiously around in the park and as soon as Petunia lifted her son away from the baby buggy, little Harry walked away from them and looked around in the playground.

Harry sat down on a sand box and played there silently. Juliet noted how the boy had much too big clothing and she felt a pang of guilt in her soul while watching the green eyed boy with the messy hair. Harry wouldn't have a simple life, and he would probably have to fight for his worth.

Juliet knew Petunia and Vernon hated magic. She knew that they didn't like the fact that they were supposed to raise Harry, but there really was no other option. They had no idea how to contact any wizards and simply leaving the boy at an orphanage would result in something bad for them.

The bigger boy came around Harry and pushed him into the dirt. "Dudley! Don't soil his clothes! The boy already causes enough laundry," Petunia told her son. Juliet frowned while looking at the woman. It was suddenly very clear to her why Albus Dumbledore would like to leave Harry with those people.

The wizarding world needed a saviour. They never had been interested in fighting for their own lives, and even though there were much more people on the Light side, the Dark side simply had more passionate people on their sides. The Light side was going to leave a small boy be their only hope and watch on the side as he struggled against the Dark Lord while doing nothing.

She felt repulsed by the people. How was he supposed to be the hope of the world? How was that small boy in the dirt supposed to win the strongest wizard alive?

Albus Dumbledore may have thought that raising Harry Potter in the muggle world was a great idea, but Juliet disagreed with it. She knew the boy would need all the help he could have in the future and that he would need to have all the right pieces in order to win this war. She knew most of the population would not fight for him, and she knew that it was going to be rough. Harry Potter needed to be magically as strong as possible, and the Dark Lord needed to lose.

The mere thought of losing Tom for eternity hurt Juliet much more than she would have liked it to hurt.


End file.
